THE COMMUNICATORS
[PART III ]
Much of our nonverbal behavior is characterized by change and movement during
a conversation. But some of the nonverbal signals we bring to each interaction
remain relatively unchanged during the course of the interaction. These are the
individual features of each communicator: skin color, hairstyle, facial features,
height, weight, clothes, and so forth. These features affect how others perceive us
and how they communicate with us.
151
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THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL
CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN
COMMUNICATION
[CHAPTER6]
Picture the following scene: Mr. and Mrs. American wake and prepare to start the
day. Mrs. American takes off her nighttime bra and replaces it with a slightly
padded upliftbra. After removing her cosmetic chin strap, she further pulls herself
together with her girdle. Then she begins to put on her face.This may involve
foundation, eyeliner, eye shadow, false eyelashes, mascara, lipstick, and blush. She
has removed the hair under her arms and on her legs. She takes a curling iron to
her hair. False fingernails, nail polish, and tinted contact lenses precede the deo-
dorant, perfume, and numerous decisions concerning clothes. Mr. American shaves
the hair on his face and puts a toupee on his head. He removes his false teeth from
a solution used to whiten them, gargles with a breath sweetener, selects his after-
shave lotion, puts on his elevator shoes, and begins making his clothing decisions.
This is an extreme hypothetical example, of course. Nevertheless, people do go to
great lengths to make themselves attractive. And it is not just an American obsession.
Venezuela, a country that has won more international beauty contests than any
other country, spends more than a billion dollars each year on cosmetic products,
and some teenage girls get a breast enlargement as a coming of age present when
they are 15 years old (Pearson, 2006).
Surgery to enhance physical attractiveness is increasing. Plastic surgeons
perform a number of procedures on people: reconstruct a nose; change breast size;
eliminate bags, wrinkles, or birthmarks; flatten ears; tuckthighs or tummies;
vacuum fat from the body by liposuction, or insert fat by lipofilling; or even
remove the upper layer of skin via a chemical peelor microdermabrasion if it
By a mans finger-nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boots, by his trouser-knees, by
the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuffsby
each of these things a mans calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail
to enlighten the competent inquirer in any case is almost unconceivable.
Sherlock Holmes
153
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appears too blotchy, red, or rough. Over a million Americans have cosmetic
surgery each year, including adult women/men and adolescents. For example, the
American Society of Plastic Surgeons reportedly did 1.2 million procedures on
men in 2004 (Heine, 2005). Why do men and women expend so much effort and
invest so much money trying to improve their physical attractiveness?
OUR BODY: ITS GENERAL ATTRACTIVENESS
People care a great deal about their appearance. If a friend tells you about someone
you have not met, you are likely to ask what the person looks likeyou want a
face to associate with the information you are receiving. Why? Novelists present
intricately detailed descriptions of their charactersappearance. Why? Publishers
put photos of book authors on book jackets and in book ads. Why? Most news-
papers publish photos of newsmakers. Why must readers see the person being
discussed in an article on airline deregulation, stock fraud, or the manufacture of
computer chips? Because people think they learn things from appearance. We take
looks as indicators of a persons background, character, personality, talents, and
likely future behavior.
Although it is not uncommon to hear people muse about inner beauty being
the only thing that really counts, research suggests that outer beauty, our physical
attractiveness, plays an influential role in determining responses for a broad
range of interpersonal encounters. The evidence from our culture overwhelmingly
supports the notion that initially we respond much more favorably to those we per-
ceive as physically attractive than to those we see as unattractive. Such positive
reactions run the gamut from the sound of our voice to the judgments we make
(Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986; Herman, Zanna, & Higgins, 1986; Hughes, Farley, &
Rhodes, 2010). Numerous studies reveal that physically attractive people are
perceived to exceed unattractive people on a wide range of socially desirable
evaluations that include success, personality, popularity, sociability, sexuality, per-
suasiveness, and, often, happiness. Our behavior toward unattractive people seems
to be largely negative, however. For example, unattractive patients in hospitals are
reportedly visited less, remain hospitalized longer, are judged to be less pleasant,
and are less involved with others.
Judgments linked to a persons attractiveness begin early in life. One study
found that children as young as 2 to 3 months looked significantly longer at an
attractive face (as judged by adults) than at an unattractive one. This preference
for attractive faces among infants occurs regardless of the age (young, old), gender,
or race (black, white) of the face or whether the infants mother is attractive or
unattractive (Gamé, Carchon, & Vital-Durand, 2003; Langlois, Ritter, Roggman, &
Vaughn, 1991; Langlois et al., 1987; Slater et al., 1998). Another study found that
6-month-old infants were able to categorize faces based on their similarities in
attractiveness (Ramsey, Langlois, Hoss, Rubenstein, & Griffin, 2004).
Cultural guidelines for physical attractiveness are well established by age 6
(Cavior & Lombardi, 1973; Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972). It is not surpris-
ing, then, to find peer popularity and physical attractiveness highly correlated in a
number of elementary and secondary schools. The perceptions of attractiveness in
a childs world are not limited to his or her peers. Teachers tend to see attractive
154 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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children as more intelligent, more socially adept, higher in educational potential,
and more positive in their attitudes toward schooleven when the unattractive
children had similar academic performance. As children develop, they are exposed
to these attitudes and evaluations made by teachers and parents. Teachers interact
less, and less positively, with the so-called unattractive elementary schoolchild.
There are many occasions in a childs life when adults ask in a punitive tone of
voice, Who did this?If an unattractive child is available, the chances are stronger
that he or she will be pointed out as the culprit. As unattractive children grow
older, they probably are not discriminated against if their task performance is
impressive, but as soon as performance declines, less attractive people receive more
sanctions than attractive ones. Antisocial behavior, such as throwing a brick
through a window, was seen differently for attractive and unattractive children
(Dion, 1972). The transgression was seen as an enduring trait of the unattractive
child but only a temporary problem for the attractive one. The act was also evalu-
ated more negatively for the unattractive child. It does not surprise us, then, to find
that juvenile delinquents were also rated as lower on attractiveness. In a study of
9- to 14-year-old boys, differences in perceived physical attractiveness were system-
atically related to social acceptance (Kleck, Richardson, & Ronald, 1974).
Although much evidence testifies to the existence of a norm that says what is
beautiful is good,physical attractiveness also may be associated with undesirable
traits; for example, vanity, egotism, snobbishness, unsympathetic attitudes toward
oppressed people, and a greater likelihood of having marital problems (Dermer &
Thiel, 1975). These negative attributions, and the knowledge that beautiful people
sometimes experience appearance-related problems, suggest all is not perfect for
these people. The research to date, however, still suggests it is far better to be
attractive than unattractive. In fact, women who were average in looks were rated
higher when evaluated from a photograph in which they were posed alongside other
women who were attractive. Subsequently, these average-looking women were evalu-
ated from photos of them posed with other average-looking women and were perceived
as more attractive by those who had seen them with the attractive women. So it
appears that women can boost their attractiveness ratings by being seen with more
attractive women, and this association does not seem to decrease the attractive
womens ratings (Geiselman, Haight, & Kimata, 1984).
Although there are some who would like us to believe that everything is
beautiful in its own way,there are many reasons to believe that things are
often beautiful in the same way to many people. Within the United States, people
are constantly exposed to standards for male and female beauty through the mass
media, so it is not surprising to find a great deal of agreement on standards for
beauty within American culture. For instance, Lee, Loewenstein, Ariely, Hong, and
Young (2008) showed that there tends to be consensus about the attractiveness of
photographed members of online picture-rating sites that does not depend on the
ratersown level of judged attractiveness.
There is also evidence that there may be some inherent standards for physical
attractiveness that cut across cultures. Studies involving people from Australia,
Austria, China, England, India, Japan, Korea, and Scotland have found significant
agreement on facial attractiveness (Etcoff, 1999; Langlois et al., 2000). Dion
(2002) points out, however, that agreement is higher when the judges are students
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 155
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from other countries who are studying in the United States and when comparisons
are made among different ethnocultural groups within a culture. Agreement is not
as high with more geographically isolated groups. Even if there is a universal and
biologically based standard for human beauty, cultures or environmental cir-
cumstances (e.g., availability of food) may impose certain variations (Anderson
et al., 1992). Nevertheless, participation in global activities like the Miss World
contest may affect local standards. Miss World 2001 was Miss Nigeria. In her
home country, she was far too skinny to be considered attractive, even though
many young Nigerians reportedly favored the new look.
DATING AND MARRIAGE
Physical attractiveness is probably more important to dating partners than it is to
friends or married couples, although perceptions of physical attractiveness still can
play an important role in marital relationships. Physical attraction may be most
important when dating involves short-term goals and more public, rather than
private, activities. Online daters, for example, may be particularly aware of the
importance of physical appearance to enticing visitors to their profile page. Toma
and Hancock (2010) found that individuals who were lower in attractiveness were
more likely to enhance their physical appearance by altering their profile picture
and misrepresenting descriptions of their physical characteristics on online dating
sites. And, perhaps due to greater societal pressures to be attractive, it appears
that women are more likely than men to post photos of themselves on dating Web
sites that have been presented in such a way as to increase their physical attractive-
ness (Hancock & Toma, 2009).
Concern about ones attractiveness is not limited to females on the dating mar-
ket. In recent years, males have become increasingly vested in their own physical
appearance, such as their fitness and muscularity as well as the need for periodic
manscaping.Men, in fact, often think physical appearance is more influential in
womens preferences for them than women indicate. One group of womenthose
who are physically attractive and financially independentdid, however, place a
high value on male physical appearance (Pertschuk, Trisdorfer, & Allison, 1994).
Apparently, highly attractive females want it all,preferring a man who is
masculine, sexy, and rich in resources (e.g., money or the potential for wealth),
who will be a loving and caring partner, and who shows a desire to establish
a home and raise children (Buss & Shackelford, 2008).
Based on the preceding information, we might suspect that actual dating pat-
terns would reflect the preference for a physically attractive partner. This hypothe-
sis was confirmed by a series of computer dancestudies at the universities of
Texas, Illinois, and Minnesota, in which physical attractiveness superseded a host
of other variables in determining liking for ones partner and a desire to date in
the future (Walster, Aronson, Abrahams, & Rottmann, 1966). Brislin and Lewis
(1968) replicated this study with 58 unacquainted men and women and again
found a strong correlation (.89) between desire to date againand physical
attractiveness.In addition, this study asked each person whether he or she would
like to date anyone else at the dance. Of the 13 other people named, all had previ-
ously, and independently, been rated as very attractive. Lastly, Luo and Zhang
156 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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(2009) found that physical attractiveness was the best predictor of mens and
womens interest in someone in an actual speed-dating situation.
In light of the many findings that seem to favor the physically attractive, it is
worthwhile to note that there are times when the very physically attractive do not
enjoy all the benefits. For example, women who had more variable attractiveness
ratingsthat is, they were not uniformly judged as very attractive or unattractive
were the group most satisfied with their socializing in general with both men and
women. They also had as many dates as the most attractive women. Some men did
not seek dates with the extremely attractive women because they felt the chances of
rejection were high and that the women might perceive their interest as limited to
their physical attractiveness (Reis, Nezlek, & Wheeler, 1980; Reis et al., 1982).
When less attractive women are in the company of attractive women, this also
seems to increase the chances that they will be seen as a good choice for a date.
So it seems that although there is a strong preference for people who are phys-
ically attractive, other forces enable those who fall short of the ideal in physical
attractiveness to date, marry, and have satisfying relationships. One of these forces
that exerts a powerful influence is called the matching hypothesis, which argues
that each person may be attracted to only the best-looking partners, but reality
sets in when actual dates are made. If you select only the best-looking person
available, you may face an unwanted rejection, so the tendency is to select a person
similar to yourself in physical attractivenesspreferably a little above your self-
perceived attractiveness (Hinsz, 1989). Since this hypothesis was presented, other
studies have confirmed its validity, including a study that included users of an
online dating site (Taylor, Fiore, Mendelsohn, & Cheshire, 2011). So it seems the
least good-looking people must settle for each other after all the very good-looking
people choose each other (Kalick & Hamilton, 1986). However, if you have high
self-esteem, you might seek out highly attractive partners in spite of a considerable
gap between your looks and theirs (Berscheid & Walster, 1969). Self-esteem, in this
case, may buffer the perception of, and possible reaction to, rejection.
Sometimes we observe couples whose physical attractiveness seems to be mis-
matched. One study suggests that evaluations of males may change dramatically
if they are viewed as married to someone very different in general attractiveness
(Bar-Tal & Saxe, 1976). Unattractive men who were seen with attractive women
were judged, among other things, as making more money, being more successful
in their occupations, and being more intelligent than attractive men with attractive
partners. Judges must have reasoned that for an unattractive man to marry an
attractive woman, he must have offset this imbalance by succeeding in other areas.
Unattractive women seen with attractive men, however, did not receive compensating
attributions. This study raises the question of what other resourcesunattractive
women are perceived to have to offset deficits in their physical attractiveness.
Even though physical attractiveness may be valued by both men and women, it
seems to play a more dominant role in the perceptions of women by men. Buss
(1994) found this gender difference reflected in every one of the 37 different
cultures he studied. Women may desire physical characteristics, such as strength or
facial attractiveness, but often rank characteristics like ambition, social and eco-
nomic status, dependability, and stability above physical featuresparticularly for
mate selection.
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 157
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The relative importance of physical attractiveness for males and females is also
likely to vary with age, desired length of relationship, and possibly even budgetary
concerns.
For adolescent boys and girls, the attractiveness, not the social status of a
potential partner, is important to their desire to date that person (Ha,
Overbeek, & Engels, 2010).
For short-term or casual sexual relationships, both adult men and women
place a high value on physical attractiveness, even though women more than
men would also like to have some desirable social and personality characteris-
tics to go along with the physical attractiveness. For long-term relationships,
both sexes value other characteristics over physical attractiveness, even though
adult men still rate it as more important. In one study, male college students
said they were interested in different characteristics in a woman depending on
whether it was a purely sexual relationship or one expected to be long term.
A wide range of features associated with physical attractiveness were chosen
for the sexual partner, but such features played a far less important role for
long-term partners. Female students wanted virtually the same qualities in a
long-term relationship as the menhonesty, fidelity, sensitivity, warmth,
personality, kindness, character, tenderness, patience, and gentlenessbut
unlike the men, they also wanted more than mere physical attractiveness for
the sexual relationship (Nevid, 1984).
Li, Bailey, Kenrick, and Linsenmeier (2002) had men and women design their
marriage partner by purchasing spouse attributes with play money under one
of two budgetary conditions. When they were given a lot of money to spend,
men spent somewhat more on physical attractiveness than did women,
whereas women spent somewhat more on social status than did men. Impor-
tantly, these gender differences were even greater when each sex had only a
little money to spend.
Two physical features of men preferred by women for short-term or casual
sexual relationships were features of masculinity in the facethicker eyebrows,
smaller eyes, thinner lips, and a squarer jaw, as in Figure 6-1and a high
shoulder-to-waist ratio. Broader shoulders and a smaller waist may be perceived as
markers of good genes(Kruger, 2006; Braun & Bryan, 2006), and these features
may be most attractive during periods when conception is most likely (Little, Penton-
Voak, Burt, & Perrett, 2002). Perhaps not surprisingly then, unattractive men tend to
have fewer children than do their more attractive counterparts (Jokela, 2009).
Apparently the face also reveals a lot about a persons sexual attitudes as well
as his or her suitability as a long-term partner. Boothroyd, Jones, Burt, DeBruine,
and Perrett (2008) photographed students and asked them to fill out a question-
naire about their past sexual behavior and their attitudes toward sex. Women
were less attracted to men who professed a strong interest in casual sex, but men
preferred the faces of females who had a high sociosexual orientation(i.e., a
greater willingness to have sexual relations with minimal commitment to and from
their partner). In another study, mens testosterone levels were measured and they
were asked to fill out a questionnaire dealing with interest in infants. Photos of
these men were shown to women who rated their physical attractiveness, their
158 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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masculinity, the extent to which they perceived them as kind, their potential as a
short- or long-term lover, and whether they seemed to like children. Women were
skilled at distinguishing the men with high testosterone and those who liked
children. Furthermore, they perceived the more masculine faces as attractive for
short-term relationships, but were drawn to the faces of the men who scored higher
on an interest in children for long-term relationships (Roney, Hanson, Durante, &
Maestripieri, 2006).
ON THE JOB
Several studies suggest that physical attractiveness may be an advantage in obtain-
ing a job, or obtaining a more prestigious job, and being hired at a higher salary
(Cash, Gillen, & Burns, 1977; Dipboye, Arvey, & Terpstra, 1977; Hamermesh &
Biddle, 1994). Unless the job is deemed inappropriate or irrelevant to the applicants
level of attractiveness, the more attractive applicants are more likely to get the job,
assuming all other qualifications are equal. Sometimes attractiveness provides an edge
even when the less attractive competitor is more qualified for the position. Once a
position has been obtained, less attractive workers may be discriminated against on
performance appraisals, unless they maintain a consistently high level of productivity.
Even though both men and women can profit from their physical attractiveness
in the workplace, it is not always beneficial for a number of reasons:
Highly attractive job applicants might be evaluated negatively by same-sex
evaluators who feel threatened by them (Agthe, Spörrle, & Maner, 2011).
Attractive workers might worry that positive evaluations of their work
are based on how they look rather than how they actually did on a task
FIGURE 6-1
Left: 50% feminized male composite; right: 50% masculinized male composite.
Source: Facial Attractiveness, Gillian Rhodes. Copyright © 2002 by Ablex Publishing. Reproduced with permission of
Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., Westport, CT.
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 159
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(Major, Carrington, & Carnevale, 1984). Because physically attractive
women are more likely than men to have their physical attractiveness
viewed in a social context by men in corporate environments, physically
attractive women may feel the need to dress so that their physical beauty is
not the immediate focus of attention (Heilman & Saruwatari, 1979). And
even though sexual harassment charges brought by unattractive women may
garner less credibility with a jury (Seiter & Dunn, 2000), the attractiveness
of both parties involved and the gender of jury members are factors that
may work against advantages normally associated with physical attractive-
ness (Wuensch & Moore, 2004).
PERSUADING OTHERS
Getting others to agree with you or do something for you is often based on the
extent to which you can demonstrate your knowledge or expertise as well as your
ability to marshal effective supporting arguments (Maddux & Rogers, 1980).
But as several research projects show, being physically attractive also may help
(Chaiken, 1986), and people may strategically use their attractiveness around
those they expect to persuade successfully (Vogel, Kutzner, Fielder, & Freytag,
2010). Persuasion success is especially likely when the persuader seeks compliance
on topics of low personal relevance to the to-be-persuaded person; when the per-
suasion involves a relatively short, perhaps onetime, request; and when the effects
of initial impressions are crucial to achieving influence. Although most of this
research has been done with college students, the association of persuasive
effectiveness with physical attractiveness has been documented in the behavior of
10- and 11-year-old children (Dion & Stein, 1978).
One of the earliest studies of physical attractiveness and persuasion used cos-
metics to make one woman look more and less attractive. In the unattractive condi-
tion, in which she wore loose-fitting clothing, her hair was messy, makeup was
conspicuously absent, a trace of a mustache was etched on her upper lip, and her
complexion was oily and unwholesome looking,she was seen as repulsive by
independent observers. The experimenter suggested to a group of students that
they would complete some questionnaires more quickly if a volunteer would read the
questions aloud and indicate what they meant. The volunteer was either the attractive
or the unattractive woman. The attractive woman, especially when she stated her
desire to influence the audience, was far more effective in modifying the opinions of
college students toward issues dealing with higher education (Mills & Aronson,
1965). Other studies also support the influence of physical attractiveness in persuasive
situations (Horai, Naccari, & Faloultah, 1974; Widgery, 1974).
The preceding research focused primarily on female communicators, but
attractiveness also seems to help male persuaders. Independent assessments of
their verbal performance, as well as their ability to obtain signatures on a campus
petition, showed attractive men and women outperforming those who were rated
as unattractive. In another study, physically attractive men and women were
judged to have better sales skills, were treated more cordially, and elicited more
willingness by people to contribute to a charitable organization (Reingen &
Kernan, 1993).
160 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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Is the persuasiveness of attractive communicators due solely to their looks, or
do they actually have persuasive skills? An examination of previous tests showed
attractive students to have higher grades, higher SAT scores, better self-concepts,
and better communication skills (Chaiken, 1979).
In summary, then, physically attractive persuaders, as compared with unattrac-
tive ones, initially elicit higher credibility and expectations for a skilled performance,
although some evidence indicates that physically attractive people seem to have these
skills already. But the advantages derived from ones physical attractiveness are
probably strongest during the initial stages of a persuasive effort.
SELF-ESTEEM
Is physical attractiveness associated with high self-esteem? One would think so.
But the answer seems to be, for the most part, no. Being physically attractive does
not guarantee high self-esteem or even happiness (Diener, Wolsic, & Fujita, 1995;
Feingold, 1992; Langlois et al., 2000). In fact, it may be linked to lower self-
esteem among children entering adolescence (Mares, de Leeuw, Scholte, & Engels,
2010).
This does not mean that efforts to enhance ones appearance have no positive
effects on people. Women aged 18 to 60 who used cosmetics to improve their
appearance also reported psychological benefits from doing so. Greater attractive-
ness for those between the ages of 40 and 60 was perceived as most beneficial for
masking the aging process and improving ones physical and mental health
(Graham & Jouhar, 1982). And training in the use of cosmetics for elderly women
has reportedly had a positive effect on their self-image. What might be more impor-
tant, though, is understanding who might make us feel better about ourselves by
positively evaluating our looks. According to Hatfield and Sprecher (1986), these
are people who have a great deal of self-esteem themselves, people who are sexu-
ally aroused by us, people who look like us, people who know us, and people
who are not likely to compare our looks with media idols.
ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR
What happens when attractive and unattractive people are charged with commit-
ting a criminal act? Are judges and juries influenced by a persons looks? As
expected, a number of studies show that attractive defendants are less likely to be
judged guilty and, if convicted, are more likely to receive a shorter sentence
(Downs & Lyons, 1991; Efran, 1974; Kulka & Kessler, 1978; Weiten, 1980). The
evidence for attractive defendants receiving lighter sentences is stronger than the
evidence linking attractiveness to guilt or innocence. Although much of the research
is based on the results of simulated juries and cases, Stewart (1980) had the attrac-
tiveness of 67 actual defendants rated. The less attractive defendants were charged
with more serious crimes and were given longer sentences, but attractiveness did
not significantly affect judgments of conviction or acquittal.
Obviously, a defendants attractiveness is rarely assessed in isolation in the
courtroom, and other factors interact with attractiveness; for example, the extent
to which the defendant expresses repentance, the degree of commitment jurors
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 161
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have toward impartiality, the extent to which jurors discuss the case, the perceived
similarity of jurors and defendant, defendant verbalizations, and the nature of the
crime being examined. For some crimes, attractiveness may be a liability for the
defendant, as when it is used to commit a crime such as a swindle. For the crime
of rape, the relative attractiveness of the victim and the defendant may influence
the jury. Attractive rape victims may be perceived as more likely to have provoked
the attack (Jacobson, 1981; Seligman, Brickman, & Koulack, 1977).
Once a person has been convicted and sent to prison, some feel that antisocial
behavior can sometimes be reduced by radical changes in appearance. It is
reported, for instance, that a 19-year-old woman with a face so deformed that lit-
tle kids ran away cryingthrew a brick through a bank window and waited for
police to arrest her. I was willing to die to get a better face,she said. The judge
ordered extensive plastic surgery (Deformed Brick-Thrower,1975). The same
reasoning launched a massive plastic surgery program for reshaping noses, remov-
ing tattoos, tightening sagging skin, disguising ugly scars, reducing extensive ear
protrusion, and removing other deformities of convicts at the Kentucky State
Reformatory (Watson, 1975). Authorities at this institution reasoned that everyday
social ridicule and potential discrimination in hiring might lead to a feeling of rejec-
tion and frustration that could manifest itself in antisocial behavior. There is some
evidence that facial unattractiveness in children may play a role in their criminality
as adults, and college-aged students seem to think that unattractive individuals
are more likely to commit murder and armed robbery than their more attractive
counterparts (Bull, 1982; Saladin, Saper, & Breen, 1988). However, programs by
doctors at the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins have not shown significant
changes in postinstitutionalized behavior for convicts with changes in their appear-
ance. Obviously, appearance is only one factor that might contribute to antisocial
behavior.
THE POWER OF PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS:
SOME IMPORTANT QUALIFICATIONS
As the preceding sections attest, much research supports the benefits and power of
physical attractiveness. No doubt it can be discouraging to the great majority of us
who do not perceive ourselves as highly physically attractive. Without ignoring the
potentially powerful effects of physical attractiveness in some situations, the goal of
this section is to review research that shows that physical attractiveness is not
always such a dominant factor in constructive interpersonal outcomes.
THE EFFECTS OF INTERACTION
Methodological issues may provide some comfort to those who perceive themselves
as less attractive. Although it is not true of all studies of physical attractiveness,
most use frontal facial photographs that had been judged prior to the study by a
panel of experts to fall into the beautiful or ugly category. Hence, in most cases
we are not reporting results from living, moving, talking human beings in a partic-
ular environment, nor are we generally dealing with subtle differences in physical
attractiveness that lie between the extremes of beautiful and ugly.
162 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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We know little about the socially skilled but homely person whose communica-
tive beauty is greater than perceptions of his or her photographic beauty. We do
know that talk can significantly affect perceptions. We also know that interaction
behavior and facial beauty are the two primary contributors to overall judgments
of physical attractiveness (Riggio, Widaman, Tucker, & Salinas, 1991). When we
talk to others, we become a part of the object we are evaluating, and this involve-
ment has the potential to change the way we see our partner. Berg (2004) found
that even a 6-minute get-acquainted conversation could significantly affect percep-
tions of the physical attractiveness of moderately attractive peoplepositively
or negatively. College studentsphotos were rated prior to a brief interaction
and then rated again later, after that interaction. This brief interaction significantly
changed perceptions of physical attractiveness, and for most of them75 percent
the change was positive. An examination of the verbal and nonverbal behavior
indicated a variety of behaviors that may have been influential change agents; for
example, giving agreement and support, showing interest in the other person, shar-
ing information, and showing a sense of humor. Behavioral mimicry during an
interaction can also affect our judgments. Guéguen (2009) found that men rated a
woman as more sexually attractive if she had (as opposed to not) mimicked his ver-
bal and nonverbal behavior during speed dating. Lastly, interaction often elicits
information about a persons personality, and that information can significantly
change initial perceptions of physical attractiveness not only for physically attrac-
tive people but also for neutral and unattractive ones (Lewandowski, Aron, &
Gee, 2007).
Many romantic partners tell stories about how their initial perception of their
partnersphysical attractiveness was not particularly high when compared with
their ideal. But they report that continued positive interaction changed this percep-
tion. A man who had been married for 20 years told this story about his courtship:
Initially, I saw her as pretty average in physical attractiveness. I remember telling a
friend soon after I met her that she was kind of chunky. But after we dated and I fully
appreciated how well we related to each other, I saw her as much more physically
attractive. I actually saw her differently. Now I cant see her as any less physically
attractive.
Increased liking for a person also may follow from merely being exposed to a per-
son more and more, something fittingly referred to as the mere exposure effect
(Moreland & Beach, 1992; Zajonc, 1968).
We also know that people who want to divorce each other find it hard to see
their partner as physically attractive in the face of so much negative verbal behav-
ior. Exactly how verbal behavior affects our perceptions of physical attractiveness
is not clear at this time, but there are indications that it plays an important role in
how we see another persons beauty (Albada, Knapp, & Theune, 2002).
THE EFFECTS OF CONTEXT
The perception of appearance may be relative to the context in which it is judged.
For example, we may perceive a popular singer on stage or television as sexy, but
the same person in our living room may seem much less glamorous. Similarly,
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 163
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a person who looks good in an isolated rural setting may not look as good in a city
environment, where he or she is compared with a far greater variety of potential
partners.
Bars also provide a unique context for judging physical attractiveness. One
research team wanted to find out if the song about how all the girls get prettier
at closing timehad any validity to it. Pennebaker and colleagues (1979) obtained
information about the general attractiveness of bar patrons at several different bars
at different times leading up to closing time. True to the lyrics of the song, both
men and women perceived a significant increase in the attractiveness of others as
closing time drew near. Although the gradually dwindling pool of potential part-
ners may have had some effect, especially for those not in a committed relationship
already (Madey, Simo, Dillworth, & Kemper, 1996), research also shows that even
moderate alcohol consumption tends to increase the ratings of physical attractiveness
of the opposite sex (Jones, Jones, Thomas, & Piper, 2003).
Who you associate with may also provide a context that affects your perceived
physical attractiveness. Men who rated the attractiveness of middle-aged women
tended to give lower ratings when they were in the presence of other men and
their rating was made public than they did when in the company of women or
when their ratings were kept private (Berman, ONan, & Floyd, 1981). Attraction
ratings also may vary as a function of the raters gender. Often the highest evalua-
tions of attractiveness come from the opposite sex.
STEREOTYPES ARE NOT ALWAYS VALID
Even though people often judge another persons physical attractiveness similarly,
the self-ratings of the people being judged may be quite different. Thus, people we
think are physically attractive may not perceive themselves that way and, as a
result, may manifest very different characteristics than we think they have. Physi-
cally attractive people are typically perceived as having a wide range of socially
desirable characteristics, and although actual measures do show physically attrac-
tive people to be more socially skilled and popular, only a negligible relationship
appears to exist between perceptions of a highly attractive personspersonality
and mental ability and their actual traits (Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo,
1991; Feingold, 1992).
ATTRACTIVENESS OVER TIME
Judgments of attractiveness may change over the course of a lifetime. Ratings of
facial attractiveness appear to be somewhat stable from about age 16 to age 50,
but the overall ratings of attractiveness for both men and women tend to decline
as we reach middle and old age, and the decline is more severe for women.
Aging also may reveal changes associated with self-esteem and attractiveness.
Middle-aged women who had been identified as attractive college students seemed
to be less happy, less satisfied with their lives, and less well-adjusted than their
plainer counterparts (Berscheid & Walster, 1974).
In one study of the effects of time on attractiveness, the high school pictures of
1,300 males and females were rated for attractiveness. The lives of these people
164 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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were examined 15 years later. Attractive females in high school had husbands with
more education and higher salaries, but their own occupational status and income
were not significantly different from those of their less attractive counterparts. The
least attractive males in high school had more prestigious occupations and more
education, and they married women with more education than the men who were
judged attractive in high school. The authors speculate that the social ostracism of
the less attractive men in high school may have turned their attention to educa-
tional achievements that paid off later in life (Udry & Eckland, 1984).
Because appearance can be changed, people judged unattractive are not necessar-
ily doomed to a long list of pitfalls or problems. Changes in makeup and hairstyle
have been shown to increase ratings of general attractiveness as well as ratings of
desired personality characteristics (Graham & Jouhar, 1981). Cosmetics have even
been used to aid the recovery and adjustment of people recuperating from illnesses.
Now that we have examined the global concept of attractiveness, we can ask,
what specific aspects of anothers appearance do we respond to? Does it make any
difference how we perceive our own body and appearance? We focus on the
answers to these questions in the remainder of this chapter.
OUR BODY: ITS SPECIFIC FEATURES
ATTRACTIVENESS AND THE FACE
Even though the face had long been the specific body feature most commonly
examined in studies of physical attractiveness, a basic question remained unan-
swered: What is facial beauty? Some features, such as smooth skin and youthful-
ness, make intuitive sense to us (Rhodes, 2006); others, such as averaged or
symmetrical features, not so much. For example, Langlois and Roggman (1990)
found that physically attractive faces approximate the mathematical average of all
faces in a particular population. These researchers took pictures of 96 college
males and 96 college females. The photos were scanned by a video lens connected
to a computer that converted each picture into a matrix of tiny digital units with
numerical values. The male and female faces were subsequently divided into three
subsets of 32 faces each. From each subset, the computer randomly chose two
faces and mathematically averaged their digitized values. It then transformed this
information into a composite face of the two individuals. Composite faces then
were generated for 4, 8, 16, and 32 members of each set. Ratings by students
showed that composite faces were more attractive than virtually any of the individ-
ual faces, and the most attractive faces were composites of 16 and 32 faces (see
Figure 6-2). There is an important qualification to this effect, though: It depends
on the initial attractiveness of the faces used to form the composites (Braun,
Gruendl, Marberger, & Scherber, 2001). Specifically, if the faces used are unattrac-
tive, the composite remains unattractive, too.
Langlois and her colleagues acknowledge that in some cases, people are
perceived as attractive by large numbers of people even though their features obvi-
ously are not the population average. In fact, the most attractive faces are not likely
to be average at all. The most attractive faces tend to emphasize those features
associated with physically attractive faces. A woman, for example, would have a
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 165
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higher than average forehead, fuller than average lips, shorter than average jaw,
and smaller than average chin and nose. Other female facial features often associ-
ated with physical attractiveness are clear skin, high cheekbones, lustrous hair,
and big eyes. A woman of any age who has small eyes, a relatively large nose, and
wide, thin lips will look older, more masculine, and be seen as less attractive.
A powerful jaw and facial hair, although indicators of male facial attractiveness,
may need large eyes and a wide smile to avoid being seen as too masculine.
2-face composite 4-face composite
8-face composite
32-face composite
16-face composite
FIGURE 6-2
Progression of mathematically averaged faces, from 2 faces to 32 faces.
Source: Facial Attractiveness, Gillian Rhodes. Copyright © 2002 by Ablex Publishing. Reproduced with permission
of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., Westport, CT.
166 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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One study found that during the time of the month when women were more
likely to conceive, they were more receptive to men with more rugged, masculine
features. During the other 3 weeks of the month, including the menstrual period,
women chose faces that were smoother and more feminine (Jones et al., 2008;
Penton-Voak et al., 1999).
Another promising approach to identifying facial attractiveness is based on the
principle of symmetry (Grammer & Thornhill, 1994). Photographs of male and
female students were precisely measured at numerous points to determine whether
features on one side of the face are equidistant to a midpoint as the same features
on the other side of the face. For example, to what extent does the midpoint
between the corners of your mouth match up to the midpoint between the corners
of your eyes? On perfectly symmetrical faces, all the midpoints meet and roughly
form a vertical line. Movie actor Denzel Washington has a very symmetrical face,
whereas musician Lyle Lovett does not. Some asymmetry is desirable; otherwise,
the face may not look real. Horizontal symmetry was also calculated, and the
most symmetrical faces were also those chosen as the most attractive. The research-
ers believe these results are consistent with findings that show symmetry is also a
powerful attractant for other animal and insect species. Indeed, it influences how
attractive people find animals (dogs) and objects (cars), too (Halberstadt &
Rhodes, 2003). It may be that across species symmetry reflects better health, and
thus, better genetic fitness in an evolutionary sense (e.g., Shackelford & Larsen,
1999). Of importance, symmetry, like averageness, is likely to garner high ratings
of facial attractiveness, but neither is a guarantee of the most attractive faces
(Cunningham, Barbee, & Philhower, 2002).
JUDGMENTS OF THE FACE
Because the face is so central in judgments of attractiveness, it is no surprise that it
is the source of stereotypingoften based on glances of 1 second or less. Peoples
judgments suggest that they believe the human face reveals important information
about a persons personality (Hassin & Trope, 2006; Laser & Mathie, 1982).
Laser and Mathie, for example, engaged an artist to prepare nine charcoal draw-
ings of a male face, varying the thickness of the eyebrows and lips and the shape
of the face. People rated these faces with adjectives. The features had marked
effects on these ratings: The face with thick eyebrows was seen as less warm,
angrier, sterner, less cheerful, and less at ease than those with thin or normal
brows; thicker lips connoted warmth and less tension than thinner lips; and narrow
faces were seen as more tense and suspicious. But it is important to remember that
not all facial stereotypes reflect actual behavior. We will not know if the stereo-
typed characteristics of people with thick eyebrows and thin lips have any validity
until we actually test this hypothesis.
There is evidence that some of our face-based judgments are accurate, whereas
others are not. It seems that we might be able to tell whether people are dominant
or submissive, whether they are criminals, as well as their sexual and sociosexual
orientation by simply looking at pictures of their face (Berry & Wero, 1993;
Boothroyd, Cross, Gray, Coombes, & Gregson-Curtis, 2011; Rule & Ambady,
2008a; Valla, Ceci, & Williams, 2011). What might account for this accuracy?
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 167
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Maybe we bring out what we expect to see from others due to shared stereotypes
we have about the meaning of their facial features. Another interesting possibility
is that people who are very high or very low in particular personality traits, such
as extraversion, share configural properties of the face that we can reliably detect
(Penton-Voak, Pound, Little, & Perrett, 2006).
Of course, our face-based judgments of others are not always accurate. One
study tested perceptions of baby-faced individuals, who were perceived as more
suggestible or persuadable, but this does not seem to be the case (Bachmann &
Nurmoja, 2006). People think they can accurately judge intelligence and health
from physically attractive faces, but they are not very good at it. This false belief
seems to be the result of overgeneralizing based on an accuracy in judging intelli-
gence and health in unattractive faces (Zebrowitz & Rhodes, 2004).
Whether a stereotype reflects actual behavior or not, people often act as if it
does. As an example, let us continue our examination of baby-faced people.
McArthur and her colleagues examined the facial features associated with age and
the kinds of interpretations people make of faces that have more or less youthful
features; in particular, they focused on the adult with baby-faced features such as
a large forehead, short chin, and big eyes. McArthur and Baron (1983) proposed
that people correctly differentiate traits that accompany younger age but then
incorrectly ascribe these traitsthat is, they overgeneralize themto people with
younger-looking faces, even though they are not necessarily young. Berry and
McArthur (1986) found, in support of this, that people rated babyish adult faces
as weaker, more submissive, and more intellectually naive than mature-looking
faces.
These investigators also simulated a courtroom trial in which a male defendant
was charged with an offense that was marked either by negligence or by deliberate
deception; the defendants appearance was manipulated to be either baby-faced or
mature-faced. Subjects acting as jurors more often convicted the baby-faced man
for crimes of negligence and the mature-faced man for intentional crimes. This
result was predicted based on the earlier finding that adults with babyish features
were perceived as more naive and more honest.
Facial babyishness has also been found to affect judgments of attractiveness
(Berry, 1991b). Facially attractive people are rated higher on characteristics such
as honesty, warmth, and sincerity when facial babyishness is high and lower
on those same traits when facial babyishness is low. Because all the faces were
perceived as attractive, this suggests the possibility of different types of facial
attractiveness.
So it seems that a number of social outcomes are consistent with the principle
that baby-faced people are more likely to acquire influence, jobs, and judicial
convictions when the influence strategies, job descriptions, or alleged crimes fit the
characteristics they are expected to have (Zebrowitz, 1997).
In sum, there is no doubt that the way a persons face is structured and
contoured creates strong impressions on others. Facial endowment may harm or
benefit a person, depending on the stereotypes associated with the features. Future
research may be able to tell us to what extent actual personality and ways of
expressing ourselves will override initial impressions based on facial stereotypes.
We suspect such initial impressions are easily overturned by behavioral evidence.
168 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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As one example, baby-faced soldiers are not expected to be very brave. As a conse-
quence, when mature-faced and baby-faced soldiers exhibit valor, the baby-faced
soldier is more likely to be decorated (Collins & Zebrowitz, 1995).
BODY SHAPE
To add a personal dimension to some of the theory and research in this section, a
short Self-Description Test follows. By taking this test, you can gather some data
on yourself, which can be compared with that of others who have taken it.
Instructions: Fill in each blank with a word from the suggested list following
each statement. For each of the three blanks in each statement, you may select
any word from the list of 12 immediately following. An exact word to fit you may
not be on the list, but select the words that seem to fit most closely with the way
you are.
1. I feel , , and most of the time.
calm
anxious
cheerful
contented
relaxed
confident
tense
impetuous
complacent
reticent
energetic
self-conscious
2. When I study or work, I seem to be , , and .
efficient
enthusiastic
reflective
placid
sluggish
competitive
leisurely
meticulous
precise
determined
thoughtful
cooperative
3. Socially, I am , , and .
outgoing
affable
tolerant
gentle-tempered
considerate
awkward
affected
soft-tempered
argumentative
shy
talkative
hot-tempered
4. I am rather , , and .
active
warm
domineering
introspective
forgiving
courageous
suspicious
cool
sympathetic
serious
softhearted
enterprising
5. Other people consider me rather , , and .
generous
adventurous
withdrawn
dominant
optimistic
affectionate
reckless
detached
sensitive
kind
cautious
dependent
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 169
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6. Underline one word out of the three in each of the following lines that most
closely describes the way you are:
(a) assertive, relaxed, tense
(b) hot-tempered, cool, warm
(c) withdrawn, sociable, active
(d) confident, tactful, kind
(e) dependent, dominant, detached
(f) enterprising, affable, anxious
This test has been given to numerous individuals in studies on the relationship
between certain personality and temperament characteristics and certain body types
or builds. Generally, these studies are concerned with a persons physical similarity
to three extreme varieties of human physique, shown in Figure 6-3.
Because most people do not fit these extremes exactly, a system has been devel-
oped for specifying body type based on the assumption that they may have some
features of all three types. Let us assume a persons physical characteristics are
rated on a scale from 1 to 7, with 7 representing the highest correspondence with
one of the three body types. The first number refers to the degree of endomorphy,
the second to the degree of mesomorphy, and the third to the degree of ectomorphy.
A grossly fat person, then, would be 7/1/1; a broad-shouldered, athletic person
would be 1/7/1; and a very skinny person would be 1/1/7. Reportedly, Jackie
Gleason was roughly 6/4/1, Muhammad Ali 2/7/1 (in his prime), and Abraham
Lincoln 1/5/6.
Now look at the test you took earlier. The test has shown a high correspon-
dence between self-reported temperament characteristics and measures of physique
(Cortes & Gatti, 1965). To calculate your score on the Self-Description Test,
simply add the number of adjectives you chose from each of the endomorph, meso-
morph, and ectomorph categories listed in Table 6-1. If you chose 6 adjectives
from the endomorph list, 12 from the mesomorph, and 3 from the ectomorph,
your temperament score would be 6/12/3. If we assume a high correlation with
body features, we would assume you are primarily mesomorphic with a leaning
toward endomorphism. Temperament scores like body shape may change with the
passage of time: The first author of this text was 5/11/5 in 1978, 8/10/3 in 1982,
8/9/4 in 1988, 10/7/4 in 1996, 8/10/3 in 2001, 6/12/3 in 2004, 10/9/3 in 2008,
and 8/10/3 in 2012. Although this test is able to make some reasonably accurate
predictions about physique for some people, it is, like all predictive tests, based on
probabilities and hence less accurate for other people.
We should not assume from this work that the body causes temperament
traits. The high correspondence between certain temperament traits and body
builds may be due to life experiences, environmental factors, self-concept, and a
host of other variables, including other peoples expectations. If there are clearly
defined and generally accepted physiquetemperament stereotypes, we can reason
that they will have much to do with the way people are perceived and responded
to by others and with the personality traits expected of people by others. Wells
and Siegel (1961) uncovered some data supporting the existence of such stereo-
types. A group of 120 adults were shown silhouette drawings of the endomorph,
ectomorph, and mesomorph and were asked to rate them on a set of 24 bipolar
170 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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FIGURE 6-3
(a) The endomorph: soft, round, fat; (b) the mesomorph: bony, muscular, athletic;
(c) the ectomorph: tall, thin, fragile.
© Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 171
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adjective scales, such as lazyenergetic, fatthin, intelligentunintelligent, and
dependentself-reliant. The investigators deliberately chose people who had not
attended college, assuming these people would not be contaminated with informa-
tion from previous studies that might structure their answers. Their results show
the following:
1. The endomorph was rated fatter, older, shorter (silhouettes were the same
height), more old-fashioned, less strong physically, less good looking, more
talkative, more warmhearted and sympathetic, more good natured and agree-
able, more dependent on others, and more trusting of others.
2. The mesomorph was rated stronger, more masculine, better looking, more
adventurous, younger, taller, more mature in behavior, and more self-reliant.
3. The ectomorph was rated thinner, younger, more ambitious, taller, more sus-
picious of others, more tense and nervous, less masculine, more stubborn and
inclined to be difficult, more pessimistic, and quieter.
Clearly, the evidence shows we do associate certain personality and temperament
traits with certain body builds. These expectations may or may not be accurate,
but they do exist, and they are a part of the psychological mortar in interpersonal
TABLE 6.1 THREE PHYSIQUE CATEGORIES AND TEMPERAMENT
STEREOTYPES
Endomorphic Mesomorphic Ectomorphic
Dependent Dominant Detached
Calm Cheerful Tense
Relaxed Confident Anxious
Complacent Energetic Reticent
Contented Impetuous Self-conscious
Sluggish Efficient Meticulous
Placid Enthusiastic Reflective
Leisurely Competitive Precise
Cooperative Determined Thoughtful
Affable Outgoing Considerate
Tolerant Argumentative Shy
Affected Talkative Awkward
Warm Active Cool
Forgiving Domineering Suspicious
Sympathetic Courageous Introspective
Softhearted Enterprising Serious
Generous Adventurous Cautious
Affectionate Reckless Tactful
Kind Assertive Sensitive
Sociable Optimistic Withdrawn
Soft-tempered Hot-tempered Gentle-tempered
172 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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communication. We must recognize these stereotypes as potential stimuli for com-
munication responses so we can deal with them effectively.
As early as kindergarten, children seem to prefer the more muscular mesomorphs
to either the thin or fat body types (Johnson & Staffieri, 1971; Lerner & Gellert,
1969; Lerner & Korn, 1972; Lerner & Schroeder, 1971; Staffieri, 1972). Youngsters
seem to have a particular aversion to the fat physiques. Older children who select
descriptive adjectives for these body types tend to see the mesomorph as all things
good,with ectomorphs and endomorphs attracting a host of unfavorable descriptors.
In fact, 10- and 11-year-olds seemed to consider body build as a more important
characteristic in judging physical appearance than deformities, disfigurements, and
handicaps (Richardson, Goodman, Hastorf, & Dornbusch, 1961). The psychological
aversion to chubby figures results in children maintaining a greater physical distance
from them (Lerner, Karabenick, & Meisels, 1975; Lerner, Venning, & Knapp, 1975).
In turn, we find that chubby children often tend to have a negative perception of their
own bodies, which may later generalize to a negative self-image (Walker, 1963). Even
the elderly rate the endomorph as a less desirable communication partner, both
socially and for working on tasks together (Portnoy, 1993).
Negative reactions to overweight individuals are frequently reported. Such indi-
viduals report being discriminated against when seeking to obtain life insurance,
adopt children, get jobs, and gain entrance to college (Channing & Mayer, 1966).
Although only a small amount of empirical evidence supports the bases of these
claims (Dejong & Kleck, 1986), it is safe to say that being excessively overweight in
our culture is often a handicap. Researchers who followed 10,000 people between the
ages of 16 and 24 for 7 years found obesity meant you were less likely to marry, more
likely to have a lower income, and more likely to receive less schooling (Gortmaker,
Must, Perrin, Sobol, & Dietz, 1993). In certain domains, the gender of the overweight
person matters; for example, womens weight seems to impact the quality of their inti-
mate relationships more than does mens (Boyes & Latner, 2009).
Although heavier women might represent the ideal in other cultures (Anderson,
Crawford, Nadeau, & Lindberg, 1992), the cultural ideal for U.S. women has
tended toward thinness. This ideal might apply more to white women in this cul-
ture, however, as heavy women are judged more harshly in terms of their looks by
white female students than by black female students (Hebl & Heatherton, 1998).
As a result, women have tended to be more conscious of their weight than have
men. In recent years, though, there seem to be more media portrayalsand a gen-
erally greater acceptanceof female bodies that are not extremely slender (e.g.,
model Christina Schmidt). And men are increasingly concerned about their weight, as
popular male stars often sport cut, muscular physiques (e.g., Taylor Lautner). Another
trend in recent years has been toward the development of healthy bodies—“eating
right,exercising, and developing muscle strength. These body standards apply to
both men and women and will probably constitute some of the features that make up
the next cultural standard for the ideal body shape.
Research has shown that women view the mesomorphic male body type
as more attractive than either the ectomorphic or endomorphic types (Dixson,
Dixson, Bishop, & Parish, 2010). Women say their favorite male physique has a
medium-wide upper trunk, a medium-thin lower trunk, and thinner legsa
V-shaped look (Singh, 1993, 1995). The most disliked male physique has a thin
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 173
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upper trunk and a wide lower trunk, or a pear-shaped look. Women who see
themselves as traditionally feminine and conservative in their lifestyle seem to
favor muscle men; more liberated women liked thinner, more linear bodies; and
big women tended to go for big men. The best clue to a womans favorite male
physique, however, is the type of physique belonging to the man who is most
important to her at that time(Beck, Ward-Hull, & McLear, 1976; Lavrakas,
1975; Pertschuk, Trisdorfer, & Allison, 1994; Wiggins & Wiggins, 1969). The
fact that women tend to like the physique of the man who is currently most impor-
tant to them suggests that romantic partners are selected for many reasons besides
physical attractiveness, and that people can favor an ideal body type but still be
happy with a person who does not match that ideal.
The waist-to-hip ratio of women plays an important role in mens judgments
of womens physical attractiveness (Singh, 1993, 1995; Streeter & McBurney,
2003). A waist-to-hip ratio of .70 means the waist is 70 percent the size of the hips,
which is considered the ideal. By contrast, the ideal ratio for men is between .80
and .95. Singh says early Greek paintings, ancient Indian sculptures, Miss America
winners, and Playboy centerfolds all show waist-to-hip ratios very close to the .70
ideal. He has surveyed people of many age groups, cultures, and ethnic groups, and
their preferences are for the .70 waist-to-hip ratio. A recent study using eye-tracking
techniques showed that, although men looked at the breasts of a female target more
often and longer than her waist, face, pubic area, and legs, they rated the female
target with the .7 waist-to-hip ratio as the most attractive irrespective of her breast
size (small, medium, large) (Dixson, Grimshaw, Linklater, & Dixson, 2011).
Women with a lower waist-to-hip ratio seem to be healthier and more fertile
than those with a higher waist-to-hip ratio. Other research, however, reveals that
in a few cultures, women with a greater waist circumference and a higher waist-
to-hip ratio are preferred by males. Some evidence also indicates that women with
higher waist-to-hip ratios and greater waist circumference are more likely to have
sons (Manning, Trivers, Singh, & Thornhill, 1999; Yu & Shepard, 1998).
Others argue from their research that the preferred waist-to-hip ratio will
increase as body size and weight increase, even though small and medium waists
and hips are preferred regardless of weight (Forestell, Humphrey, & Stewart,
2004; Tassinary & Hansen, 1998). There is no doubt that the waist-to-hip ratio is
one of several features that affect perceptions of female attractiveness. Another fea-
ture, which has not received as much research attention, concerns the leg-to-body
ratio of females (i.e., length of legs relative to height) (Frederick, Hadji-Michael,
Furnham, & Swami, 2010; Swami, Einon, & Furnham, 2006). Findings are mixed
as to whether longer or more mid-range leg-to-body ratios are seen as most attrac-
tive. Another feature is age of the face. One study found that the perceived age of a
womans face had a greater overall impact on judgments of her physical attractive-
ness than did her waist-to-hip ratio (Furnham, Disha, & McClelland, 2004).
HEIGHT
Height also influences interpersonal responses. People seem to know that height
can be important to their social and work lives. Pediatricians report that parents are
often concerned that their child is not as tall as he or she should be at a certain age.
174 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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Children themselves are asked to focus on height when their teachers tell them
to line up by height. Adults seem to overestimate their height, and shorter males
do so to a greater extent than taller males (Bogaert & McCreary, 2011; Cameron,
Oskamp, & Sparks, 1978). In some areas of the country, police officers and fire-
fighters are required to meet minimum height requirements. Some applicants,
according to newspaper accounts, have actually bludgeoned their heads in the
hope that the swelling would make up the difference between their height and the
required height.
Height derives its importance from a widespread belief that major deviations
from median heightsabout 5 feet, 4 inches for women and 5 feet, 9 inches for
menwill incur negative judgments from others. Although some may believe it is
possible to be too tall, most negative judgments are thought to be associated with
shortness. As Stabler, Whitt, Moreault, DErcole, and Underwood (1980) noted,
There is a pervasive social attitude which associates tallness with positive charac-
teristics and assigns negative attributes to shortness.
Is there any truth to this? The anecdotal evidence is far more plentiful than the
empirical research, and most of the research focuses on men only (Roberts &
Herman, 1986). In a study of 956 students in grades 6 through 12, Sandberg,
Bukowski, Fung, and Noll (2004) concluded that being too tall or too short had a
minimal impact on peer perceptions of social behavior, friendship, or acceptance.
Some psychiatrists echo the belief that sometimes short kids are teased, but that
they get over it and do not experience lasting psychological problems. And there
seems to be little evidence supporting significant differences in the lives of short
children whose parents have authorized giving them human growth hormone to
increase their stature. Still, the belief that tallness is favored in the United States
persists, so we will examine some dominant perceptions associated with height:
status;attractiveness, marriage, and sex; and competence.
HEIGHT AND STATUS Height has long been a metaphor for power and prestige. Some
evidence suggests that height is positively related to authority status on the job for
men but not for women (Gawley, Perks, & Curtis, 2009). The taller of the two
U.S. presidential candidates has usually won since 1900, with Jimmy Carter and
George W. Bush as notable exceptions. When Carter debated President Ford, his
campaign advisers did not want him to be seen standing next to the 6-foot-1-inch
president. Consequently, they asked that the debates be conducted from a sitting
position. Fords advisers refused. The compromise involved placing the lecterns far
apart. Further testimony to the stigma associated with shorter people and power is
that behavior labeled competitive for a taller man is labeled a Napoleonic complex
for a shorter one.
If status and power inhere in taller people, are they also more persuasive? One
study indicates they are not (Baker & Redding, 1962). Photographs were taken of
the same person, a male, from two different angles: one designed to make him look
short, one to make him look tall. These pictures, plus a tape-recorded persuasive
speech, were the stimuli for various student groups. Attitude measures indicated
no statistically significant difference between the tall and short speakers.
It is more likely that tallness interacts with other factors, such as general body
size, girth, and facial features. In your own experience, you probably can recall
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 175
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some tall individuals who seemed almost frighteningly overpowering, whereas
others of the same height did not have this quality. Science has not yet established
a clear-cut relationship between a persons actual height and his or her social
status. Nevertheless, the connection is often made when, without any other infor-
mation, people are asked to make a judgment about height and status. We know
of a woman who earned her doctoral degree under a famous psychologist and
believed, while she was his student, that he was a tall, imposing figure. Later, she
was genuinely surprised to realize he was actually a short man. He had merely
seemed tall to her.
HEIGHT AND ATTRACTIVENESS,MARRIAGE,AND SEX Taller men are frequently perceived as
more attractive than shorter men. The ideal male lover is not described as short,
dark, and handsome.Male romantic leads in movies are usually either tall or
made to look tall by camera angles. Numerous sources attest to the important
role of height in perceptions of attractiveness, but obviously we do not make
judgments of anothers attractiveness based on height alone. Therefore, we can con-
clude that height is one important feature involved in judgments of attractiveness,
but we cannot say that tallness is always associated with the highest judgments of
attractiveness. We do know that moviegoers are often taken aback when they learn
that a male icon of physical attractiveness and masculinity is much shorter than he
is portrayed in his movies.
You have probably noticed that shorter people are more likely to be romanti-
cally involved with each other, and taller people are similarly paired up. It seems
that romantically involved couples do indeed tend to be more similar to each other
in height than randomly paired couples (Warren, 1966). Sure, there are exceptions
to this, and they tend to be striking to us when we see them. Sometimes they are
even a source of amusement, as when the 5-foot-11-inch Nicole Kidman stated
that I can wear heels againafter her marriage was over to the 5-foot-7-inch
Tom Cruise. Perhaps not surprisingly then, advertisements for romantic partners
often give height as a critical piece of information about themselves (Harrison &
Saeed, 1977).
There are benefits and burdens associated with height for men and women in
relationships. Pawlowski, Dunbar, and Lipowicz (2000) have found that married
men tend to be taller than their unmarried counterparts. And taller adult men
report having more frequent sexual intercourse (Eisenberg, Shindel, Smith, Breyer, &
Lipshultz, 2010). Short and tall women, on the other hand, appear to be more
jealous and competitive toward other women than are women of average height
(Buunk, Poliet, Klavina, Figueredo, & Dijkstra, 2009).
HEIGHT AND COMPETENCE Several reports indicate that tall males are perceived as more
competent on the job and are rewarded with higher salaries. Before salary becomes
an issue, a person has to be hired, and some evidence suggests this is more difficult
for a shorter man. In one study, 140 sales recruiters were asked to choose between
two men just by reading their applications for employment. The applications were
exactly the same except that one listed a height of 6 feet, 1 inch and the other 5 feet,
5 inches. Only 1 percent favored the shorter man (Kurtz, 1969). Another study indi-
cated that men who were selected to advance in corporate training programs were
176 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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significantly taller than average (Farb, 1978). An analysis of similar studies led Judge
and Cable (2004) to conclude that taller people have higher self-esteem, are more
likely to be in leadership positions, make more money, and get better performance
evaluations at work than shorter people. This was more likely to be the case with
men, but there was a strong relationship for women as well.
However, the relationship between height, income, and performance on the job
may not be as simple as the preceding studies suggest. For example, actual perfor-
mance records showed few differences between shorter and taller police officers, but
their supervisors felt shorter police officers were more aggressive law enforcers and
more likely to be a source of discontent in the police department (Lester & Sheehan,
1980). Persico and Postlewaite (2004) found that taller white male adults did make
more money than their shorter colleagues, but when their analysis was controlled
for height as a teenager, this difference disappeared. In other words, there was no
income gap for short male adults who were not considered short in high school.
BODY IMAGE
So far we have discussed our perceptions of others. An equally important dimen-
sion of interpersonal communication is what we think of ourselves. Self-image is
the root system from which our overt communication behavior grows. Our overt
communication behavior is an extension of the accumulated experiences that have
made up our understanding of self. In short, what you areor rather what you
think you areorganizes what you say and do. An important part of your self-
image is body image, perhaps the first aspect of self-image formed in young
children.
A study of Australian men and women showed that women were in general
less satisfied with their bodies (Mellor, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, McCabe, & Ricciardelli,
2010). Adult males seem to be most satisfied with their bodies when they are some-
what larger than normal; females are most satisfied when their bodies are smaller
than normal but when their busts are larger than average. In an effort to test the
belief that larger bust sizes were more desirable to others, photographs were taken
of three women who artificially altered their bust size. The woman with the smal-
lest bust, about 34 inches, received the highest ratings on competence, ambition,
intelligence, morality, and modesty (Kleinke & Staneski, 1980).
Sex researchers have frequently noted emotional problems in males stemming
from a perceived incongruence between their genital size and the supposed masculine
ideal perpetuated by our literary and folklore heritage. However, more than 71
percent of the women in one survey agreed or strongly agreed that men seem too
concerned with the size and shape of their genitals(Pertschuk, Trisdorfer, & Allison,
1994). For women, reduced sexual satisfaction may stem from greater dissatisfaction
with the appearance of their genitals (Schick, Calabrese, Rima, & Zucker, 2010).
As we develop, we learn the cultural ideal of what a body should be. This results
in varying degrees of satisfaction with the body, particularly during adolescence.
Wolf (1991) and others believe the standards of beauty promulgated in the mass
media are oppressive and create an undesirable yearning for often unreasonable
goals. Such standards can influence viewerscurrent level of self-esteem. The self-
esteem of neurotic women seems particularly vulnerable to the effects of being
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 177
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exposed to thin models in the media (Roberts & Good, 2010). A national survey of
several thousand adults indicated that between 1972 and 1986, both mens and
womens dissatisfaction with their bodies rose sharply. Weight was a major factor
of dissatisfaction (Cash, Winstead, & Janda, 1986). If the prediction of the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention holds true, that 42 percent of Americans
will be classified as obese by 2030, dissatisfaction with weight will likely continue to
increase.
A number of studies show, however, that we are not always accurate in our
perceptions of our own body size and weight. In some cases, constant exposure to
ideal body images on television contributes to misperceptions of body shape and
size (Bissell & Zhou, 2004; Myers & Biocca, 1992). In addition to misjudgments
of our own body size and weight, we may also misjudge the body type that is
most appealing to the opposite sex. Women seem to think men prefer a thinner
woman than men actually report; men seem to think women want a heavier man
than women actually report. Men thought that having an attractive face and body
build was more important to women than women said it was (Fallon & Rozin,
1985; Pertschuk, Trisdorfer, & Allison, 1994).
BODY COLOR
We do make some judgments about temporary color changes that show up on
peoples bodies. On light-skinned people, for example, a pale color may indicate
illness, a rosy flush may indicate embarrassment, and a red neck can appear with
anger. But in many respects, permanent skin colors have been the most potent
body stimulus for determining interpersonal responses in our culture. Some Asian
Americans use whitening creams and lotions on their faces, arguing that the desire
for pale skin is an ancient Asian tradition associated with delicacy and femininity.
Younger Asian Americans wonder if this is really an effort to blend into a culture
where there is less discrimination against white-skinned individuals, or even a man-
ifestation of prejudice against those with darker skins. There is no need to review
the abuses heaped on black people in America on the basis of skin color alone.
These abuses are well documented. The words of a white man who darkened his
skin pigmentation and experienced the dramatic and unforgettable life of a black
man in America is sufficient reminder:
When all the talk, all the propaganda has been cut away, the criterion is nothing but
the color of skin. My experience proved that. They judged me by no other quality.
My skin was dark. That was sufficient reason for them to deny me those rights and
freedoms without which life loses its significance and becomes a matter of little more
than animal survival.
I searched for some other answer and found none. I had spent a day without food and
water and for no other reason than that my skin was black. I was sitting on a tub in
the swamp for no other reason. (Griffin, 1960, pp. 121122)
As U.S. demographics change and the number of mixed-racial marriages goes up,
the variety of skin colors manifested by the people around us will continue to
increase, and sharp distinctions among peoples skin colors will become increas-
ingly difficult to make. Still, there will always be those who want a simple method
178 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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of classifying their social world, and skin color is easily observed. We can only
hope that the number of people who believe skin color to be an accurate gauge
for identifying friend and foe will continue to decrease.
The standards for beauty are usually set by the economically dominant group
within a society. People in less dominant groups are judged by the standards of
the dominant group and, seeing the reward value, may try to mimic the standards
of the dominant group. The standards in the United States have traditionally been
those associated with the features of the people whose ancestors immigrated here
from northern and western Europe. Among other features, they had whiteskin.
There is nothing inherently more attractive about whiteskin or the features
shared by these Americans who had a northern or western European heritage. In
fact, pale skin is more likely to have freckles and is more prone to skin cancer and
wrinkles earlier than the skin of many Asians and Africans. Interestingly, womens
desire to tan drops when they are reminded of their own death and exposed to
fashion information about the attractiveness of pale skin (Cox et al., 2009).
In time, the dominant group will change, and no doubt some of the standards
for physical attractiveness will change with it. One example concerns the growing
number of children being born to parents from different racial groups. Earlier we
discussed that averaged faces are perceived as more attractive. Given that children
of mixed-racial parents may have a blend of facial features from each race, one
wonders if these children will be perceived as more attractive. Rhodes et al. (2005)
found that white and Japanese participants perceived a mixed-race composite face
(i.e., white, Japanese) as more attractive than faces depicting either exaggerated
white or Japanese features.
BODY SMELL
It is obvious that vision and hearing are the most important sensors for social
situations in Western societies, but the sense of smell also may influence responses.
The scientific study of the human olfactory system is in its infancy, but we know
other animals obtain a great deal of information from their sense of smell: the pres-
ence of an enemy, territorial markers, finding members of the same species or herd,
sexual stimulation, mate selection, and emotional states. Dogs are well known for
their ability to sense fear, hate, or friendship in human beings and to track them
by only the scent from clothing. The difficulty dogs seem to have in distinguishing
between the smells of identical twins prompted Davis (1971) to suggest that we
each have an olfactory signature.
Americans do not seem to rely consciously on their sense of smell for much
interpersonal information, unless perspiration odor, breath, or some other smell is
unusually strong or inappropriate to the situation. It is believed that all of us
could enhance our olfactory sensitivity if we learned the words needed to differenti-
ate among various odors. We have a rather limited vocabulary for discussing subtle
differences in smells, which in turn may hinder their identification. If it is true that
we tend to neglect our olfactory skills, it seems ironic that we spend so much time
and money on artificial scents. Each year American men and women spend millions
of dollars on deodorants, soaps, mouthwashes, breath mints, perfumes, aftershave
lotions, and other products to add to or cover up natural body scents. Publicly, the
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 179
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so-called natural scent seems to have a low priority in our cultural development,
but we are not at all reluctant to buy a commercial product that will purportedly
make us smell natural or sexy.
Artificial scents are not always designed for pleasant reactions. During World
War II, scientists developed a noxious-smelling compound they called Who Me?
This product was put into collapsible plastic tubes and distributed to Chinese
children in cities occupied by the Japanese. The children squirted the odorous sub-
stance onto the trouser seats of Japanese officers. The foul-smelling result was more
than just a temporary irritantit was nearly impossible to wash out (Russell,
1981). Odors so foul smelling as to be capable of emptying buildings and even
incapacitating people may have contemporary applications in law enforcement and
the military.
What is the role of human odors in daily interaction? Our reactions may be
consciously or unconsciously processed, but the message can be quite strong.
During heightened emotional arousal, chemical olfactory signals may even assume
an importance that rivals the normally dominant visual and auditory channels.
Human odors are primarily emitted through glands found in the anal-genital region
and in secretory glands in the face, hands, feet, and sometimes across the chest.
Odors collect in the mouth and in regions of the body with hair. Several experi-
ments attest to the fact that people are usually able to identify the odors of specific
other human beings. These dirty T-shirtstudies instructed people to wear a
cotton T-shirt for periods ranging from 1 day to 1 week and to avoid using any
perfumes and deodorants. Seventy-five percent of the people tested were able to
sniff out their own T-shirt and those of a male and female stranger; 50 percent of
spouses were able to identify their mates T-shirt. Parents can identify their
childrens T-shirt, some only 2 hours old, with accuracy rates that sometimes
exceed 90 percent, and children are generally able to identify their siblings
(Lord & Kasprzak, 1989; Porter, Cernoch, & Balogh, 1985; Porter, Cernoch, &
McLaughlin, 1983; Porter & Moore, 1981; Russell, 1976). By the age of 6 weeks,
infants respond to the odor on a breast pad from their mother but not from a
stranger. One study even found people able to identify gender from hand odors.
An important qualification is in order: Although we do seem to be able to identify
others by smell, the accuracy rate depends a great deal on how many competing
stimuli we have to judge from. It may be much easier to choose a spouses T-shirt
from 2 than from 20.
Smells not only help us identify people, but may also play a role in relationship
development and maintenance. When unmarried women were asked to select a
males T-shirt that had an odor that they would like to smell if they had to smell
it all the time, they selected T-shirts from males who were genetically similar, but
not too similar, to their fathers (Jacob, McClintock, Zelano, & Ober, 2002).
Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) appears to be a factor. MHC is made
up of genes that influence tissue rejection in the immune system, and if a child is
conceived with a person who is too similar in MHC, the fetus is at a greater risk
of rejection. Animals often use smell to detect MHC differences in potential mates,
and now we know humans can, too. Women preferred the smell of male T-shirts
that were safely different in MHC from their own, even though women taking
birth control pills were not nearly as consistent in selecting safely different MHC
180 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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based on the smell of male T-shirts (Garver-Apgar, Gangestad, Thornhill, Miller, &
Olp, 2006; Wedekind & Füri, 1997; Wedekind, Seebeck, Bettens, & Paepke,
1995). With respect to relationship maintenance, Lundström and Jones-Gotman
(2009) found that the more women expressed love for their current boyfriend,
the less able they were to identify the body odor of a male friend, suggesting that
this might be a means of deflecting attention away from other males as potential
mates.
Homosexual men seem to react differently to male pheromones than heterosex-
ual men, and they prefer the odors of gay men. Heterosexual men and women, as
well as lesbians, did not prefer the odor from homosexual males (Martins et al.,
2005; Savic, Berglund, & Lindström, 2005). Heterosexual males also seem to be
affected by different odors given off by females at different times in the ovulation
cycle. Eighteen strippers (lap dancers) recorded their tips over the course of
60 days. When they were ovulating, they earned $67 an hour; when they were not
ovulating or menstruating, they earned $52 an hour; when they were menstruating,
they earned $37 an hour. Strippers who were taking a contraceptive pill did not
show a peak in earnings during estrus (Miller, Tybur, & Jordan, 2007).
Odor also seems to play a role in synchronizing female menstrual cycles. It was
discovered that friends and college roommates moved from an average of 8.5 days
apart in their menstrual cycles to less than 5 during the school year. Another exper-
imenter attempted to explain why by taking odor samples from the underarm of a
female colleague, which was called Essence of Genevieve. This odor was dabbed on
the upper lips of female volunteers three times a week for 4 months. Another group
of women were dabbed with alcohol. The alcohol group showed no change, but
the group receiving Essence of Genevieve tended to synchronize their cycles with
Genevieves. This group went from an average of 9.3 days apart in their cycles to
3.4, with four women moving to within 1 day of Genevieves cycle. Subsequent
work has examined the role of a mans perspiration odor on womens menstrual
cycles. The procedures used in the Essence of Genevieve study were replicated
using women whose cycles were longer than normal and shorter than normal.
Those whose upper lips were dabbed with the male odor developed cycles closer
to normal; the control group did not (Cutler et al., 1986; McClintock, 1971;
Russell, 1976; Stern & McClintock, 1998).
In addition to affecting the menstrual cycle, male perspiration also seems to
have a positive effect on womens moods in the form of stress reduction and relax-
ation (Preti, Wysocki, Barnhart, Sondheimer, & Leyden, 2003). Additionally,
people may be sensitive to competitive signals (and thus potential threat) that are
being communicated via male sweat. Larger skin conductance responses were
observed from people when they were exposed to the sweat of males who had par-
ticipated in a competitive sport (and thus had higher levels of testosterone) relative
to those in a sports control condition (Adolph, Schlösser, Hawighorst, & Pause,
2010). The preceding studies are important reminders of the connection between
physiological processes and odor. Physicians have long known that people with
certain illnesses tend to give off certain odors, but now we are finding that certain
physiological processes can be modified by odor. It does not surprise us that such
effects take place in the animal or insect worlds, but until recently we have not
thought of human behavior in this way. Today, some people even practice
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 181
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aromatherapy, using odors to alleviate anxiety, headaches, and hypertension, for
example.
Another source of odor is flatulent air, generally adding a negative or insulting
aura to an interpersonal encounter in our culture (Lippman, 1980). In fact, antici-
pation of expelling flatus may lead to rapid termination of an interpersonal con-
tact. Under certain conditions, however, emission of flatulent air may be used
deliberately to draw attention to oneself. The extent to which odors attributed to
flatus or unpleasant body odors are evaluated negatively is probably related to the
extent to which others believe people are aware of it and whether it is controllable.
The role of odors in human interaction varies considerably from culture to
culture. Asians are reported to manifest underarm odor only rarely, but odor
seems to play a prominent role in some Arab countries:
Olfaction occupies a prominent place in Arab life. Not only is it one of the distance-setting
mechanisms, but it is a vital part of a complex system of behavior. Arabs consistently
breathe on people when they talk. However, this habit is more than a matter of different
manners. To the Arab good smells are pleasing and a way of being involved with each
other. To smell ones friend is not only nice but desirable, for to deny him your breath is to
act ashamed. Americans, on the other hand, trained as they are not to breathe in peoples
faces, automatically communicate shame in trying to be polite. (Hall, 1966, pp. 159160)
In addition to human odors, environmental odors also may affect human encoun-
ters by setting the mood or bringing back memories associated with the smell. For
the first author of this book, a distinct smell is associated with high schools; each
time he enters one, it triggers a chain of memories from his own history.
BODY HAIR
The length of a persons hair can dramatically affect perceptions and human inter-
action. In 1902, the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs sent out an order to forc-
ibly, if necessary, cut all male Indianshair so they would look civilized.
Historically, this is only one of many instances in which hair length triggered an
undesirable response.
During the 1960s, white males who allowed the hair on their head to grow
over their ears and foreheads, and sometimes to their shoulders, found they fre-
quently attracted abuse similar to that leveled at African Americans. Cases of dis-
crimination in housing, school admittance, jobs, and commercial establishments,
to mention a few, were numerous.
The media have regularly reported stories involving reactions to, or regulations
directed toward, human hair, mostly male hair. The examples we provide next are
from 1973 to 2004. Although some of the events discussed in these news stories
might not take place today, they show how hair choices have the potential to
arouse strong feelings in people.
AUSTIN,TEXAS (1973) Long hair on boys and men is the sign of a sissyand
should be banned from American athletic fields, according to the lead article in
the May issue of the Texas High School Coaches Associationsmagazine. A head
football coach at a junior high school in Houston said God made man to dominate
woman and, therefore, meant for man to wear short hair. Simpson told his fellow
182 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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coaches in the article that a good hair code will get abnormals out of athletics
before they become coaches and bring their losersstandards into the coaching
profession.
NEW JERSEY (1973) The headmaster of a well-known preparatory school, who
sported a beard and a mustache, said about 60 seniors would be suspended if
they did not cut their hair to meet regulations on hair grooming. One student
reported he was told by the headmaster, I hold your diploma. Either you get a
haircut or [you] dont get your diploma.
CONNECTICUT (1975) A woman was fired from her waitressing job because she
refused to shave her legs.
SEOUL,SOUTH KOREA (1980) The national police were ordered to refrain from arrest-
ing males because of their long hair. During the first 8 months of the year, 14,911
men were arrested on such a charge.
LUBBOCK,TEXAS (1990) A mother in Texas did not see how the rat-tail hairdo her
11-year-old son had been wearing for 3 years was suddenly in violation of the
Lubbock Independent School Districts dress code. School officials were enforcing
a policy that prohibited boys from having longer than shoulder-length hair, pony-
tails, rat tails, patterns shaved into their hair, and braids. Her son, a Boy Scout
and honor student before his withdrawal, was being tutored at home because he
refused to conform to the new policy.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (1994) A woman with a moustache alleged that her facial hair
was the reason she was fired.
COLUMBIA,SOUTH CAROLINA (1995) Prisoners at a correctional institution stabbed five
guards and took three hostages to protest a policy that would require them to cut
their hair.
BASTROP,TEXAS (1996) A state appeals court ruled that school officials were out of
bounds when they sent a ponytailed 8-year-old to the equivalent of solitary con-
finement. The school districts claims that its hair rule was needed to prevent
gangs, teach gender identity, and maintain discipline were sheer nonsense, the
Third Court of Appeals said. [The boy] wore the same hairstyle during the previ-
ous school year without causing any disruption,the court said. The school dis-
tricts lawyer said he would recommend the district take the case to the Texas
Supreme Court. Later, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the school board had
the power to set regulations for hair length for their students.
HARLINGEN,TEXAS (2004) A 16-year-old student who had several cases of cancer in
his family wanted to grow his hair long and donate it to Locks of Love, a non-
profit organization that uses donated hair to create custom-fitted hairpieces for
children suffering from medical hair loss. School officials said this would violate
the policy that forbids males to grow hair that hangs below their shoulders.
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 183
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The school superintendent said that the school districts success is rooted in not
making exceptions to the policies in place.
Most of the negative reactions against long hair are directed at males. As noted
earlier, men are increasingly concerned about their appearance, including their
hair (Ricciardelli, 2011). For example, some men are concerned that baldness will
detract from their own attractiveness, but just as often, women report that it does
not. Negative reactions against hair that is too short (microbuzzes) are more
likely to be directed at females, unless, of course, the male is suspected of being a
skinhead. The motivation for negative responses to these extreme hairstyles by
some members of our culture is an important question but not our major concern
here. The fact that hair length, in and of itself, elicits feelings of either appreciation
or repugnance is the important point (see Figure 6-4).
Other body hair also seems to be important in judgments of attractiveness as
well. One study that looked at male facial hair from a historical perspective sug-
gests that men sport more facial hair when they want to be more attractive to
women, during times when marriage is valued and the competition for brides is
intense (Barber, 2001). But another study indicates that male beards may not be
much of an asset in obtaining a management-trainee position (Shannon & Stark,
2003). Although men with a lot of body hair are attractive to some women and
repulsive to others, women in California and New Zealand found men as more
and more unattractive as the amount of hair increased on the mens chest and
abdomen (Dixson, Dixson, Bishop, & Parish, 2010). Nonetheless, it appears that
preference for male body hair among women might be shaped by experience. For
instance, Finnish women showed a preference for male torso hairiness that was cor-
related with that of their fathers and current romantic partners (Rantala, Pölkki, &
Rantala, 2010).
What about the hair on womens bodies? For years, Playboy magazine neatly
airbrushed or did not display pubic hair on its models. Even magazines depicting
figures in nudist colonies were so well known for such alterations of pubic hair
that many subsequently advertised their magazines as unretouched. And the prac-
tice of shaving or trimming ones pubic hair is common among college-aged
women (e.g., bikini or Brazilian wax) and men in the United States and Australia,
even though the reasons for doing so may be different for each sex (Smolak &
Murnen, 2011).
When nude photographs of the pop singer Madonna appeared in two national
magazines, many people commented more about the hair under her arms than
about her lack of clothing. Some liked the underarm hair; others did not. Many
people in the United States find underarm hair unattractive on women even though
this perception is not shared in other countries. It is reported that the Cacobo
Indians of the Amazon rain forest carefully trim and groom their head hair but
feel that other body hair is unattractive; they methodically eliminate eyebrows by
plucking them. The lack of eyebrows on the Mona Lisa is some evidence that at
one time it may have been desirable to pluck them for beautys sake.
The shape of our bodies, our skin color, our smell, and the hair on our bodies
are probably the major factors affecting our responses to our own and othersper-
sonal appearance. Still, many other body features, in any given situation, may play
184 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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an important role; for example, freckles, moles, acne, and so-called beauty marks.
The numerous individuals who have had surgery to improve the appearance of
their noses, popularly dubbed nose jobs,must have felt that a large nose created
a sufficiently undesirable impression in face-to-face interaction to have it changed.
We now turn to how we alter our bodys appearance with clothing, decorations,
and artifacts such as eyeglasses, jewelry, and piercings.
FIGURE 6-4
How do hair length and style influence your perceptions?
Image Source Black/Jupiter Images
Serg Zastavkin, 2008/Used under license from Shutterstock.com Image Source Black/Jupiter Images
Image Source Black/Jupiter Images
Image Source Black/Jupiter ImagesImage Source Black/Jupiter Images
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 185
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OUR BODY: CLOTHES AND OTHER ARTIFACTS
As early as 1954, Hoults experiments verified what we take to be common sense
todaythat you can change peoplesperceptionsofsomeonebychangingthatpersons
clothing. We do not have to look far to find evidence in our daily world to confirm
Houltsfinding.TheAssociatedPressoncereportedthattheLutheranChurchbelieved
the attire worn by clergy in the pulpit was responsible for some churchgoersswitching
denominations. Many tailors, manufacturers, and sellers of clothes claim to be
wardrobe engineerswho structure their clientsoutward appearance to increase
their sales, assert their authority, or win more court cases. Career specialists tell us that
ajobapplicantsattireandgroomingareimportantindicatorsofhisorherattitude
toward the company and that appropriate dress aids career advancement. Major
League Baseball recently passed a dress code that prohibits members of the media, such
as reporters, from wearing flip-flops, short skirts, and tank tops on the job. Apparently
the ruling authorities of Major League Baseball believe that outfits that show more skin
do not communicate the level of professionalism expected of reporters.
Some research supports the belief that clothes are an important factor in first
impressions. Males and females were asked what they notice about people when
they first meet them, and they were given 10 characteristics of appearance from
which to choose. Females noticed clothes first for both same- and opposite-sex
people; males also looked at clothes first for same-sex people, but for members of
the opposite sex, clothes took third place behind figure and face (First Impres-
sions,1983). Positive first impressions of a persons clothing style are also more
likely if the styles of the person being judged and the person doing the judging are
similar (Reid, Lancuba, & Morrow, 1997).
School dress codes also provide clear testimony that people believe clothes com-
municate important messages. The Associated Press reported in 1994 that several
Houston-area school districts outlawed what they called the grunge look. Students
were prohibited from wearing baggy pants; untucked shirts; piercings in the lips,
nose, and eyebrows; torn or ripped clothing; duster-type coats; or trench coats.
Earrings were prohibited for boys, and girls could not wear miniskirts; tank tops;
cutoffs; halter tops; strapless garments; or casual pants, dress slacks, or skirts worn
on hips. These school administrators, like administrators in other school districts
with similar dress and grooming restrictions, wanted to ban clothing that could
hide weapons, that might convey gang or drug-related messages, or that seemed sex-
ually provocative, and to encourage clothing that would convey what they believed
to be a safe, respectful, and positive learning environment. Although many second-
ary school students agreed with some of these restrictions, they did not perceive
others as detracting from a positive learning environmentfor example, beards,
elongated arm holes on shirts, hair not its natural color, tank tops, and sunglasses.
We can make two important conclusions from the preceding examples: (1) right
or wrong, many people believe clothes communicate important messages; and
(2) clothing communicates most effectively when it is adapted to the wearers role
and the attendant surroundings. This second conclusion relates to the earlier testi-
mony about how to dress for job interviews and make positive first impressions. It
is also supported by research in which well-dressed participants and participants
who were dressed sloppily asked strangers for money to make a phone call. When
well dressed, those requesting aid received more cooperation in a clean, neatly
186 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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appointed airport, where most of the people were also well dressed; when partici-
pants were poorly dressed, the greatest cooperation was obtained from strangers in
a bus station, where the people and surroundings more closely resembled the partici-
pants state of poor dress (Hensley, 1981). Sometimes we are very much aware of
what attire fits the situation. Most people know, for example, that the business out-
fits of working women on television programs are sexier and often inappropriate for
women who do not work on camera(White, 1995). Other situations are not so
clear, as Victoria Clarke, then assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, found
out in 2003. She was criticized by some for wearing bright colors while answering
questions about the war in Iraq. Some, mainly men, argued that pink is not an
appropriate color in a time of war (Givhan, 2003).
Examine the clothing types shown in Figure 6-5. What are your first impressions?
FIGURE 6-5
Four clothing styles.
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CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 187
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The following is a list of 20 characteristics that may be associated with one or more
of these clothing types. Check the spaces you think apply to specific clothing types,
and compare your impressions with those of your friends, family, and associates.
Males Females
12341234
1. Has smoked marijuana
2. Is shy, doesnt talk much
3. Is a fraternity or sorority member
4. Is a Democrat
5. Is involved in athletics
6. Is married
7. Is generous
8. Drives a sports car
9. Is a Republican
10. Is vocationally oriented
11. Is active politically
12. Is dependable
13. Listens most to classical music
14. Lives with parents
15. Has long hair
16. Has many friends
17. Is intelligent
18. Is religious
19. Is open-minded
20. Is older
Did you find any similarities in your responses and those of your peers? Were there
any major differences between your responses and the responses of people with dis-
tinctly different backgrounds? Later in this chapter, we focus on what specific mes-
sages and impressions clothes communicate, but first let us consider the fundamental
question: Is clothing, in and of itself, an important factor in communicating?
FUNCTIONS OF CLOTHING
To understand the relationship between clothes and communication, we must be
familiar with the various functions clothes can fulfill: decoration, physical and
psychological protection, sexual attraction, self-assertion, self-denial, concealment,
group identification, persuasion, attitude, ideology, mood reflection or creation,
authority, and status or role display (Barnard, 2001). For example, Tiggermann
and Lacey (2009) reported that womens dissatisfaction with their body was related
to the greater use of clothing for camouflage purposes.
188 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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Other functions are related to norm adherence and gender-role expectations
and opportunities. Because some widely accepted cultural rules and social norms
apply for combining certain colors and styles of dress, clothes can function to
inform the observer of a persons knowledge or awareness of such rules (see The
Lowdown on Fashion Trends). Intrasex recreation that stems from gender-linked
opportunities may explain femalesgreater interest in clothing. Griffiths (1988)
argues that females have fewer choices than do males for recreational activities.
Learning about fashion is something that females spend a lot of time on, especially
during adolescence through young adulthood. This activity may thus function as a
common, acceptable form of recreation for them (Bloch, 1993). It is interesting to
note that this behavior is even observed in virtual settings; Guadagno, Muscanell,
Okdie, Burk, and Ward (2011) found that women were more likely than men to
buy clothes/objects for their avatars.
Clothing that functions as a means of persuasion has been the subject of
numerous studies. An old but classic study tested the ability of people dressed in
high-statusclothing to get unsuspecting bystanders to violate a traffic light.
Lefkowitz, Blake, and Mouton (1955) found pedestrians much more likely to
violate a traffic light at an intersection if another person violated it ahead of them,
especially if that other persons attire represented a person with social status. Other
studies have found that a variety of requeststo make change, accept leaflets, give
detailed street directions, return money left in a phone booth, and so onare more
easily accomplished if the requester is dressed to fit the situation or is dressed in
what would be considered high-status clothing (Fortenberry, MacLean, Morris, &
OConnell, 1978; Levine, Bluni, & Hochman, 1998). Bickman (1974a, 1974b),
for example, had four men stop 153 adults on the streets of Brooklyn and make
various requests. The mens clothing varied and included civilian clothing,
THE LOWDOWN ON FASHION TRENDS
What nonverbal message is she communicating? As a
college student in the United States, she might be
signaling her awareness and acceptance of fashion
norms concerning how she can identify herself as
female through style of dress. Interestingly, what is
acceptable todaypartially exposed butt crack
among women wearing low-rise jeanswas not a
while ago. It used to be referred to as plumbers butt,
a decidedly pejorative label. This suggests that non-
verbal messages linked to fashion may be subject to
shifting conformity pressures. Chances are one day
wearing pants that low will no longer be fashionable.
Women who continue to do so might then be
communicating a different nonverbal message to others, such as Im old-fashioned.In fact, this might be
starting to happen already, as this fashion trend appears to be fading.
gopenshaw/Big Stock Photo
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 189
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comprising a sport jacket and tie; a milkmans white uniform; and a guards uni-
form, with a badge and insignia but no gun. The men asked pedestrians to pick
up a bag, to put a dime in a parking meter for someone else, or to stand on the
opposite side of a bus-stop sign. In each case, when dressed in the guard uniform,
the men received greater compliance. In fact, 83 percent of those who were asked
to put a dime in the parking meter obeyed, even after the person in the guard uni-
form had left the scene. Uniforms do help people identify the wearers probable
areas of expertise, and this knowledge can be persuasive. In public service
announcements, the same woman dressed as a nurse or as a businesswoman asked
for contributions to fight leukemia. The nurse was judged to be more knowledge-
able and received more pledged contributions (Lawrence & Watson, 1991). Uni-
formed police officers want their uniform to be persuasive, but it is sometimes
difficult because of the different goals associated with their job. It was debated
whether the same uniform can communicate approachability and friendliness as
well as authoritativeness in enforcing the law (Young, 1999). Lawyers have long
known that their clientsmanner of dress can have a persuasive impact on the judg-
ments made by a judge or jury. Some defendants have even been encouraged to put
on a ring that simulates a wedding ring to offset any prejudice against single people.
CLOTHING AS INFORMATION ABOUT THE PERSON
To make a list of the things invariably communicated by clothes would be impossi-
ble; such a list would vary with the demands of each particular situation, ethnic
group, time of day and era, region of the country, and, for women, even the phase
of their monthly ovulatory cycle. Women, for example, may choose sexier clothes
to wear when they are close to ovulating (Durante, Griskevicius, Hill, Perilloux, &
Li, 2011). Making the task even harder is the fact that any given item of clothing
can be worn in such a way as to convey multiple meanings. The design of a tie
may convey sophistication and status, but the way it is knotted or worntight or
loose, thrown over the shouldercan send other messages.
Some of the personal attributes communicated by dress include sex, age, nation-
ality, relation to a companion (e.g., matching sweaters), socioeconomic status, iden-
tification with a specific group, occupational or official status, mood, personality,
attitudes, interests, and values. Clothes also set our expectations for the behavior of
the wearer. When the target of our observations is a person well known to us, that
knowledge will guide our interpretations of clothing. We may, for example, see radi-
cal clothing changes as representing temporary moods rather than lasting personality
changes. Obviously, the accuracy of such judgments varies considerably; it is signifi-
cant to note that the more concrete items such as age, sex, and socioeconomic status
are signaled with greater accuracy than more abstract qualities such as attitudes,
values, and personality. In recent years, the messageT-shirt has become a vehicle
for communicating some attitudes that might otherwise be more difficult to assess.
EFFECTS OF CLOTHING ON THE WEARER
Up to this point, we have established that clothing communicates a variety of mes-
sages, and the people we interact with respond in various ways to those messages.
But what about the effect of clothing on the self-image of the wearer? Some
190 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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authors feel that clothes help satisfy an image of a persons ideal self. Gibbins, in
his work with 15- and 16-year-old girls, for instance, found a definite relationship
between clothes that were liked and ratings of ideal self. Clothing was a means of
communicating messages about the wearer, and liking for a particular outfit was
related to the extent to which this message is similar to the subjects ideal self-
image(Gibbins, 1969). In another fascinating discovery, we see a potential link
between clothing and self-concept. High school boys who had higher achievement
test scores but who wore clothing deemed unacceptableby their peers were
found to have lower grade-point averages than those who wore acceptablecloth-
ing (Hamilton & Warden, 1966). This latter group also found themselves in less
conflict and in more school activities. Clothes, then, may encourage or discourage
certain patterns of communication. A new outfit may promote feelings of gaiety
and happiness, people may feel less efficient in shoes that hurt, and self-
consciousness may result from wearing an inappropriateoutfit, a common feel-
ing for adolescents trying to grapple with their own self-image. Some graduate
teaching assistants wear suits to class to distinguish themselves from their students
who frequently are almost the same age. Some report that such attire gives them
added confidence or assurance in dealing with their students, but their attire seems
to have relatively little effect on the perceptions of their students when compared
with their behavior (Gorham, Cohen, & Morris, 1999; Roach, 1997).
The mutual effects of clothing on the wearer and on the perceiver were amply
demonstrated in a study of the uniforms worn by teams in the National Hockey
League and National Football League. In this study, teams with black uniforms
ranked near the top of their leagues in penalties, and those teams that switched from
nonblack to black uniforms incurred more penalties after the switch. The authors sug-
gest that wearers of black uniforms perceive themselves as more aggressive and that
this, coupled with similar perceptions by referees, leads to more penalties (Frank &
Gilovich, 1988). In a study involving nurses, wearing patient clothingled to feelings
of comfort as well as stigmatization and depersonalization Edvardsson (2009).
The issue of wearing uniforms to school has gained a great deal of notoriety
in recent years. One of the prominent arguments for adopting school uniforms is
that the style of dress changes how wearers feel about themselves and, in turn,
changes behavior. One large-scale study of 10th-grade students did not find any
direct effects of uniforms on substance use, behavioral problems, or attendance
but did find a negative effect on achievement (Brunsma & Rockquemore, 1998).
For some students, uniforms provide a needed form of structure and control, and
they are a symbol of school unity, but it is not realistic to expect uniforms to
eliminate most of the offensive behaviors manifested by troubled teens. School
uniforms by themselveswithout the support of students, teachers, school admin-
istrators, and parentsare not likely to accomplish much.
CLOTHING AND PERSONALITY
Rosenfeld and Plax (1977) wanted to determine whether attitudes toward clothing
are related to certain personality characteristics. Their study obtained responses
from both males and females on a questionnaire about clothing attitudes. A massive
battery of personality tests also was given to this group of 371 men and women.
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 191
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The results of these personality tests were then matched with the scores on four
dimensions of the clothing questionnaire. Results are listed for males and females
who scored high or low on one of the dimensions: exhibitionism (I approve of
skimpy bathing suits and wouldnt mind wearing one myself).
High males were aggressive, confident, outgoing, unsympathetic, unaffection-
ate, moody, and impulsive, and had a low self-concept regarding their familial
interactions.
High females were radical, detached from interpersonal relationships, and had
a high opinion of their own self-worth and moral/ethical beliefs.
Low males were guarded about self-revelations. They had a low self-concept
regarding their familial interactions, and they believed people could be easily
manipulated.
Low females were timid, sincere, accepting of others, and patient, and had a low
motivation for heterosexual relationships. They also had feelings of inferiority.
Can we accurately perceive some personality traits from the way people dress? It
appears that a persons style of dress may offer diagnostic clues to his or her
personality traits (Back et al., 2010; Borkenau, P., & Liebler, A. (1993a); Vazire,
Naumann, Rentfrow, & Gosling, 2009). Stylish clothes and haircuts can lead us
to accurately see the trait of extraversion in others Borkenau, P., & Liebler, A.
(1993b). Fancy clothes can also contribute to the initial positivity that we feel
toward those whose personality traits can be problematic to us in the long run,
such as is the case with narcissists (Back, Schmukle, & Egloff, 2010).
ARTIFACTS AND BODY DECORATIONS
People adorn themselves with badges, tattoos, masks, earrings, personal aids and
devices (glasses, watches), accessories (hats), and jewelry, among other things.We
must take these artifacts and decorations into consideration in any discussion of
clothing because they are also potential communicative stimuli. A ring worn on a
particular finger, a fraternity or sorority pin worn in a particular configuration,
and a single earring worn in a particular ear all may communicate something
about the nature of a persons relationships and self-image.
We know that people around the world choose to decorate and alter their
bodies in a variety of ways, sometimes temporarily with body paint, sometimes
permanently with tattoos (see Figure 6-6 and Figure 6-7). The body can be scarred,
mutilated, or painted, and in the case of binding infantsfeet or heads, the bone
structure, reshaped. In our society, we circumcise many male children, and the
piercing of various body parts with rings has become increasingly popular with
young adults in recent years. And, as you probably have noticed on your campus,
the use of tattoos to decorate the body is widely practiced (Sanders, 1989).
We know people sometimes react strongly to a particular artifact or decora-
tion. These reactions may be positive, negative, or a mixture of the two depending
on your point of view. For example, lipstick may be used to enhance the redness of
femaleslips due to its positive association with greater femininity and attractive-
ness (Stephen & McKeegan, 2010). Due to concerns that jurors would not give a
man accused of murder a fair trial, his lawyer convinced the court to have his
192 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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clients offensive tattoos cosmetically covered up during trial, suggesting that auto-
matically negative associations of guilt and criminality are linked to the presence of
specific tattoos. Lastly, Wohlrab, Fink, Kappeler, and Brewer (2009) observed that
tattooed avatars were viewed as more adventure-seeking, less inhibited, and having
more previous sexual partners than their nontattooed counterparts.
Of course, we should not assume that we know for certain how people will
respond to even the most common of personal artifacts. Consider the following ques-
tion: Do people who wear eyeglasses seem more intelligent to us? Surprisingly, given
the frequent depictions of smart but nerdy bespectacled people on TV, the answer to
this question is not clear (Harris, Harris, & Bochner, 1982; Lundberg & Sheehan,
1994; McKelvie, 1997). Furthermore, some of our strong reactions to artifacts may
be only short-lived. Once we have had a chance to interact with a person, our overall
impression of him or her is likely to be based on additional appearance-related
features as well as the verbal and nonverbal behavior that we see from him or her.
FIGURE 6-6
A face temporarily altered with body paint.
Waddell Images/Shutterstock.com
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 193
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SUMMARY
Appearance and dress are part of the total non-
verbal stimuli that influence interpersonal
responses, and under some conditions, they are
the primary determinants of such responses.
Physical attractiveness may be influential in
determining whether a person is sought out,
and it may have a bearing on whether a person
is able to persuade or manipulate others. It is
often an important factor in the selection of
dates and marriage partners, it may determine
whether a defendant is deemed guilty or inno-
cent, and it may even have an effect on whether
a prisoner is able to decrease the antisocial
behavior responsible for his or her imprisonment.
It may be a major factor contributing to how
others judge personality, sexuality, popularity,
success, and often happiness. Fortunately for
some, and unfortunately for others, such judg-
ments begin early in life. Not all children are
conventionally beautiful. There are indications
that teachers not only make attractiveness judg-
ments about young children but also treat the
unattractive ones with fewer and less positive
communications. A sizable proportion of the
American public still thinks of the ideal man or
woman in terms of physical attractiveness.
In spite of the overwhelming evidence that
physical attractiveness is a highly desirable
FIGURE 6-7
People around the world use tattoos to decorate their bodies.
Patrizia Tilly/Shutterstock.com
194 PART III THE COMMUNICATORS
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quality in interpersonal situations, other factors
temper these general findings. For instance, all
positive findings for attractiveness are based on
probabilities, not certainty. Many less attractive
people are not evaluated unfavorably. For exam-
ple, judgments can be tempered by who people
are seen with, the environment in which they are
judged, other communicative behavior they
engage in, or the time of life at which they are
evaluated. In addition, many attractiveness
studies have used photographs rather than live,
interacting human beings, and we know that the
dynamics of interaction influence perceptions.
In addition to the importance of general phys-
ical attractiveness in influencing the responses of
others, we have some information on stereotyped
responses to specific features: general body build,
facial appearance, skin color, odor, hair, and
clothes. These specific features may have a
profound influence on a persons self-image
and hence on patterns of communication with
others.
The way we clothe our bodies may also com-
municate important messages in our work and
social lives, and it is one of the first things people
perceive about us. We can judge age, sex, and
socioeconomic status from clothing with more
accuracy than we can a persons attitudes or
beliefs. Wearing attire that others perceive as
similar to theirs, appropriate to the situation, or
representative of an expert or authority figure
gives a persuasive element to clothing. We also
know that clothing and the other ways we deco-
rate our bodieswith jewelry, colors, tattoos,
and so onaffect how we feel about ourselves,
which in turn affects how we communicate.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Can our verbal behavior affect the way peo-
ple perceive our physical attractiveness?
What verbal behavior might cause people to
perceive us as less physically attractive?
What verbal behavior might make us appear
more physically attractive? Do the answers
to these questions vary with context? If so,
give examples.
2. Do you know romantic couples in which the
female is significantly less attractive than
the male? If so, develop photos that reflect
this difference, and ask people what it is
about the female that the male is likely
attracted to?
3. Do we see physical attractiveness differently
in photos and videos with no sound? Do
your own experiment: Obtain ratings of the
physical attractiveness of people in photos
and the same people shown interacting.
They should all interact with the same person
and talk about the same subject. How do you
explain the differences or the absence of
differences?
4. People have been refused employment or
fired from their jobs because of perceived
problems with their height, weight, odor,
skin color, clothing, hair, or general attrac-
tiveness. Under what conditions if any do
you think such characteristics are legitimate
reasons for not hiring a person or for firing
an employee?
5. Do you think a person can be physically
attractive in one situation but not in another?
Test this idea with both males and females by
showing photos of the same people in differ-
ent situations.
CHAPTER 6THE EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 195
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THE COMMUNICATORS
BEHAVIOR
[PART IV ]
Most of our nonverbal behavior involves change or movement. We exhibit different
gestures, postures, and body movements during an encounter; sometimes we touch
others, and sometimes we do not. Our face, eyes, and voice also are displayed in
various patterns. Part IV examines these behaviors individually, but in everyday
conversation, these signals work in concert with one another to communicate
various messages. The ways various nonverbal signals work together is the subject
of Part V.
197
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THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE
ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION
[CHAPTER7]
Sapirs view, quoted above, aptly characterized the prevailing view of gestures
during the first part of the 20th century. If he were alive today, his assessment
would no doubt be somewhat different. Spoken language and gestures are commonly
acknowledged as building blocks of human interaction, both in informal conversa-
tion and in more formal public discourse. But unlike language, gestures received rela-
tively little scholarly attention until the last part of the 20th century. Kendon (1981a)
identified only six scholarly books on gesture published between 1900 and 1979 in
the English language. Now, however, gestures are carefully scrutinized by scholars
from around the world, and the academic journal Gesture, specifically devoted to
gesture research, was launched in 2001. As a result, our knowledge of how people
use and respond to gestures has greatly increased.
Even though gestures are the primary focus of this chapter, it should be noted
that the way people walk and their posture may also play an important role in
communicating information to themselves and others. Several studies have shown
that various emotions such as sadness, anger, and happiness can be accurately iden-
tified by a persons gait (Janssen et al., 2008; Montepare, Goldstein, & Clausen,
1987; Montepare & Zebrowitz, 1993; Montepare & Zebrowitz-McArthur, 1988).
The amount of arm swing, stride length, heavy-footedness, and walking speed play
a central role in these perceptions. Carney, Cuddy, and Yap (2010) showed that a
state of greater dominance (e.g., elevated testosterone levels, increased feelings of
power) was induced in those who assumed a high-power (open and expansive) pos-
ture compared to those who assumed a low-power (closed and contractive) posture.
We respond to gestures with an extreme alertness and, one might say, in
accordance with an elaborate and secret code that is written nowhere, known
by none, and understood by all.
Edward Sapir
199
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Here, postural cues likely informed that person how he or she should feelmore
versus less powerful or in controlwith biological and psychological changes
occurring that were in keeping with each felt state. We also derive information
from observing another persons posture. For example, Hadjikhani and de Gelder
(2003) found that perceptions of fear communicated solely by a persons body,
with the expressors facial features blurred, activated the same areas of a perceivers
brain that are activated when responding to facial expressions of emotion. And
Gilbert, Martin, and Coulson (2011) demonstrated that people can identify an
angry body posture more quickly than a happy body posture located in a neutral
crowd. This finding pertaining to postural cues is in line with other research show-
ing that we have an attentional bias for threatening nonverbal cues, such as angry
faces and insulting gestures (Flaisch, Hacker, Renner, & Schupp, 2011; Hansen &
Hansen, 1988).
Typically, gestures are thought of as arm and hand movements, but head ges-
tures are also well known. In fact, some head gestures seem to transcend culture
and language. In some studies, Arabic, Bulgarian, Korean, and African-American
speakers all used lateral head movements to accompany expressions of inclusivity,
changed their head position for each item on a list, oriented their head toward a
specific location when referring to absent or abstract entities, and used head nods
to elicit active listening nods from their listeners (McClave, 2000; McClave, Kim,
Tamer, & Mileff, 2007). Nevertheless, as you will soon discover, culture matters
with respect to the use and interpretation of gestures. Kita (2009) has identified
four cultural factors linked to such differences in gestures, including the meaning
ascribed to emblems, which we discuss shortly, as well as how language is used to
express spatial information. Normally gestures are produced without bodily touch,
but touching does occur. For example, a pointing gesture may touch the speakers
own body or that of the listener. The movements involved while actually perform-
ing tasks such as grooming, smoking, eating, drawing, or hammering a nail are not
considered gestures, but arm and hand movements that allude to and represent the
performance of such behaviors are definitely considered gestures. In fact, people
whose daily work involves a variety of manual manipulations, like the work of a
car mechanic, may develop a gestural repertoire that emanates from this work
(Streeck, 2002).
Gestures perform many intrapersonal and interpersonal functions. One way of
thinking about this is to ask the question, Who benefits from gestures, the person
doing the gesturing or the person being gestured to during an interaction?The
answer is both. However, who benefits the most in any given interaction depends
on a variety of factors. For example, gestures help speakers retrieve certain words
or describe objects that move as part of their function, and thus serve a greater
intrapersonal function. Listeners may benefit more from a speakers gestures when
these gestures add emphasis or clarity to speech, help characterize and make mem-
orable the content of speech, and act as forecasters of forthcoming speech; such
gestures serve a greater interpersonal function. Hostetter (2011) reviewed a number
of studies and concluded that the speakers gestures do enhance a listeners compre-
hension of the message, especially when a gesture is not redundant with the speech
or the person being gestured to is a child as opposed to an adult. Hostetter also
found that abstract ideas are harder to communicate via gestures. Of course, we
200 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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must recognize that gestures are going to be equally important to both interactants
at times, such as when they regulate the flow and rhythm of an interaction between
the two people. One example would be gestures that communicate the following:
Im done talking; its your turn.
Many types of gestures are commonly employed in everyday interaction, and
these gestures have been categorized in many ways (McNeill, 2000; Morris, 1977,
1994; Kendon, 2004). This chapter uses a classification system based on the extent
to which a gesture is dependent on speech for its meaning. This is a useful dis-
tinction, and we can learn a lot about gestures by classifying them as either speech
independent or speech dependent. At the same time, it is important to recognize the
difficulties in neatly categorizing a behavior which, on the surface, may seem rela-
tively uncomplicated. Take, for example, the head shake (Kendon, 2002). Sometimes
we use the head shake as a speech-independent gesture meaning no,although a
side-to-side head wobble in parts of India and Bulgaria means just the opposite.
And while a nomeaning can be communicated without speech, sometimes people
will say noduring the shake. The meaning of the shake has a greater dependence
on the accompanying speech when it is used to signal disapproval or doubt, which
may occur while saying Well, I guess I could talk to her .In addition, the head
shake also accompanies statements to underscore intensity or impossibility, as in
You just wouldnt believe how buff he was.The head shake, like all the gestures
discussed in this chapter, can be used and interpreted in different ways, depending
on the way it is enacted and the context in which it occurs. With this in mind, let us
examine those gestures that are less dependent on speech for their meaning.
SPEECH-INDEPENDENT GESTURES
Speech-independent gestures are also known as emblems (Ekman, 1976, 1977) or
autonomous gestures (Kendon, 1984, 1989a,b). They are nonverbal acts that have
a direct verbal translation or dictionary definition, usually consisting of a word or
two or a phrase. There is high agreement among members of a culture or subcul-
ture on the verbal translation of these signals. These gestures are the least depen-
dent on speech for their meaning and most commonly occur as a single gesture.
The ring gesturein Figure 7-1 is an example of a speech-independent gesture
found in several cultures (see Decoding Decisions).
Children are able to decode some of these speech-independent gestures by the
time they are 3 years old, and this ability increases dramatically by age 5 (Kumin &
Lazar, 1974; Michael & Willis, 1968, 1969). In one study, 4-year-olds of both
sexes accurately decoded the emblems for yes,”“no,”“come here,”“quiet,
good-bye,”“two,”“I wont listen,”“blowing a kiss,”“Im going to sleep,and
I wont do it.But none of the 4-year-olds was able to accurately decode crazy.
Generally, children at this age understand and decode accurately more speech-
independent gestures than they actually use in their own interactions. Yet, with
prompting and support by caregivers, babies who have not learned to talk can effec-
tively use between 10 and 60 communicative signs (Acredolo & Goodwyn, 1996).
Adult awareness of speech-independent gestures is about the same as that of
word choice. It is a behavior we are usually very conscious of enacting. These ges-
tures often are produced with the hand, but not exclusively. A nose wrinkle may
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 201
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say Im disgusted!or Phew! It stinks!To say I dont know,”“Im helpless,
or Im uncertain,we might turn both palms up, shrug the shoulders, or do both
simultaneously. Ekman believes that facial emblems differ from facial expressions
of emotion in two ways: They are more stylized; and they are enacted for either a
longer or shorter duration than the emotional expression. When people talk about
their experiences, they may portray certain feelings emblematically by selecting and
emphasizing a single feature of a multifeatured facial expression of emotion. Exam-
ples include smiling to indicate happiness, and mechanically dropping the jaw or
dramatically raising the eyebrows to indicate surprise.
In some cultures, speech-independent gestures are strung together to form a
sequential message, but this is unusual in the United States. But it could happen if
you were on the phone when a visitor enters your office and you needed to indicate
the following in succession: Wait a minute,”“come in,and sit down.Sometimes
an entire system of speech-independent gestures develops, such as with underwater
divers, umpires, and television directors. Even though these gestures form a system of
signals related to performing a specific task, such systems can grow beyond the bound-
aries of those tasks. In the sawmills of British Columbia, for example, the noise level
made spoken communication very difficult. A system of task-related gestures devel-
oped that eventually came to include messages not associated with the tasks of the
sawmill (Meissner & Philpott, 1975). Gesture systems not limited to a specific task
are known as sign languages. Sign language is commonly thought of as a form of
communication for the hearing impaired, but sign languages also develop in other
contexts. Examples include religious orders in which vows of silence are taken as well
as social situations in which some are forbidden to speak to others, such as has been
reported for Armenian wives in the presence of their husbands (Kendon, 1983).
Speech-independent gestures may be used when verbal channels are blocked or
fail, but they also are used during verbal interaction. A person may be telling the
story of another persons strange behavior and may conclude by making a gesture
FIGURE 7-1
The ring gesture signifies A-okayor goodin the United States as a speech-independent
gesture. It may stand for zeroor worthlessin other cultural contexts.
theprint/istockphoto.com
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202 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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that communicates hes crazy.In this case, the circular gesture at the side of the
head is a substitute for the statement. This gesture also could be used to complete an
utterance: If you ask me, I think .In this case, the verbalizations are redundant
and unnecessary for understanding the message being communicated. In this example,
the speech-independent gesture occurred at the end of a speakersturn,butothersmay
occur at the beginning. Ekmans study of the shrugemblem finds that it occurs most
often at the beginning of a speakers turn (see Figure 7-2). Listeners may also use
speech-independent gestures to comment on or qualify what the speaker is saying.
Yesand nogestures are common listener responses during anothers speech.
Thus, even though speech-independent gestures can communicate messages
without attendant speech, their meanings are still influenced by context. Giving
someone the fingercan be humorous or insulting, depending on who performs
DECODING DECISIONS
How would you interpret these gestures? As
discussed already, there is generally high agree-
ment about the verbal meaning of speech-
independent gestures in a culture. Nevertheless,
even within a culture, there may be uncertainty
regarding the meaning of such gestures. Contex-
tual, regional, and ethnic background factors may
alter the emotional valence or verbal translation
of them. In the picture on the left, the Lshape
near the forehead means loserin the United States. As a college student, you probably know that someone
might do that in jest if the goal is to playfully tease another person about not succeeding at something he or she
should have. It also might be a display of derision about another persons lack of success or low station in life.
As reported in the news in 2006, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia cupped a hand under his chin
and flicked his fingers out in response to a question about his critics. This speech-independent gesture is
shown in the picture on the right. For the Italian Scalia, this was meant to signal that these critics were not
worthy of his consideration. For others who were present, though, Scalia was signaling that he would say
f**k offto them. If you had to rule on this one, what decoding decision would you have made?
Scott Griessel/Photos.com
Boston Herald
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 203
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it, who the target is, and what other behaviors accompany it. Facial expressions
and eye movement accompanying speech-independent gestures are likely to expand
the range of possible meanings associated with a hand gesture. And it is always
possible that the meaning associated with a gesture in the absence of speech will
be modified if it is accompanied by speech, including those occasions when the
accompanying speech is seemingly redundant. Some of these emblematic gestures
are specifically adapted to particular subgroups within a given culture. In the
United States, for example, the finger-wag gesture indicating no-nois used pri-
marily when adults are addressing children; the shame on yougesture seems lim-
ited to usage by children (see Figure 7-3).
Sherzers (1974) detailed work on the pointed-lip gesture used by the San
Blas Cuna of Panama and the thumbs-up gesture used by urban Brazilians illustrates
how gestures may have a general meaning that is modified by context. For example,
the thumbs-up gesture has a general meaning of goodor positive(see Figure 7-4).
Context, however, expands the range of its meanings. It can be used to indicate
understanding the point of what someone said or did; to acknowledge a favor granted;
to greet someone; to indicate knowledge of the next move in an interactional sequence
and who is going to perform it; to request permission to carry out an action, as when a
customer signals a waiter about the availability of a table; and as a sexual insult.
Sometimes the context does not affect the meaning so much as the slight
changes in the way the gesture is performed. When the forefinger is extended, with
the rest of the hand in a fist, and is held motionless about 12 inches in front of
ones chest, the meaning is wait a minute.When the finger repeatedly moves up
FIGURE 7-2
The shrug gesture.
Richard Hutchings/Photo Researchers
204 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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and down, the meaning shifts to one of emphasis or reprimand. When the same
finger and hand are put perpendicularly in front of the lips, it means be quiet.
There are published lists of emblematic gestures for cultures around the
world (Armstrong & Wagner, 2003; Axtell, 1991; Barakat, 1973; Creider, 1977;
Johnson, Ekman, & Friesen, 1975; Morris, Collett, Marsh, & OShaughnessy, 1979;
Poggi, 2002; Saitz & Cervenka, 1972; Sparhawk, 1978; Trupin, 1976; Wylie,
1977). Kendons (1981b) analysis of over 800 emblematic gestures contained in
some of these lists revealed three broad categories of meaning that accounted for
80 percent of the speech-independent gestures observed in the United States,
FIGURE 7-3
Finger emblems used in the United States for no(left) and shame on you(right).
FIGURE 7-4
The thumbs-up gesture by 2008 presidential candidate John McCain.
© Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved
Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 205
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Colombia, France, southern Italy, and Kenya and 66 percent of those found in Iran.
These categories were (1) interpersonal control, (2) announcement of onescurrentstate
or condition, and (3) an evaluative response to the actions or appearance of another.
Ekmansstudiesoffiveculturesindicatethateach has emblematic gestures for greeting
and departing, replying, directing locomotion (all forms of interpersonal control), insult-
ing or evaluating anothersactionsorappearance,referringtoapersonsphysicaland
affective state, or announcing a personscurrentconditionorstate.Asyet,nospeech-
independent gestures have been found that are made the same and have the same mean-
ing in every culture studied. Future research may identify some, however. The most
likely candidates are gestures having to do with affirmation and negation; stopping; not
knowing; and sleeping, eating, and drinking (i.e., functions all human beings share).
Far more common are examples of gestures of similar form that differ in meaning
from culture to culture. From 1877 through 1878, Bulgaria and Russia combined
forces to fight Turkey. The alliance discovered a real problem in that the Russian way
of saying nowas to shake the head from side to side, but a very similar Bulgarian
gesture, a head sway or wobble, meant yes(Jacobson, 1972). The ring gesture,
with the thumb and forefinger touching to make a circle (see Figure 7-1), indicates
youre worth zeroin France and Belgium; moneyin Japan; assholein parts of
southern Italy; and in Greece and Turkey, it is an insulting or vulgar sexual invitation.
Of course, to many U.S. residents, it means A-okay.Things certainly would not be
A-okayif the ring gesture was used in cultures that attach other meanings to it.
The thumb signals the number 1 for Germans, whereas it does not for French or
English Canadians (Pika, Nicoladis, & Marentette, 2009). The thumbs-up gesture
pictured in Figure 7-4 is usually decoded as positive, meaning goodor okayin
the United States, but in the Middle East, it is an obscene gesture. The thumb
inserted between the index and middle fingersthe figgestureis an invitation
to have sex in Germany, Holland, and Denmark but is a wish for good luck or pro-
tection in Portugal and Brazil (see Figure 7-5). During World War II, Winston
Churchill made the V for victorygesture world famous, and it continues to mean
victoryin some cultures. But if the palm is facing toward the performer, it is a sex-
ual insult in Great Britaina meaning former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
learned the hard way, when she essentially said screw youto a crowd of people,
thinking she was giving a sign of victory. In the United States, the British meaning
of sexual insult is not associated with the Vsign facing inward; it simply means
two.Nor is there any distinction the other waywith the palm facing outward
between the Vfor victory and the Vfor peace, a meaning that gained popular-
ity during the antiVietnam War protests of the 1960s (see Figure 7-6).
FIGURE 7-5
The figgesture.
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206 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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b
c
FIGURE 7-6
(a) Vgesture used as an insult in Britain and (b) illustrated by Winston Churchill. (c) Richard
Nixon makes the V for victorygesture at the 1968 Republican Convention in Miami.
(d) People at an anti-Persian Gulf War demonstration in Washington, DC, using the V
gesture to signify peace.
Bettmann/CORBIS
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CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 207
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The vertical horn sign pictured in Figure 7-7 is normally decoded cuckoldin
Portugal, Spain, Italy, and places in Central and South America (cuckoldmean-
ing a man whose wife has cheated on him). Students from cultures in which this
gesture indicates your wife has been unfaithful to you, and you are either too stu-
pid to know it or not man enough to satisfy herwould indeed be surprised if they
were to attend the University of Texas. Here, and throughout Texas, the horn sign
is used to show identification with the university and represents school spirit. It is
modeled after longhorn cattle and literally represents the University of Texas
Longhorns. Consider the reaction of people who associate the sign with cuckold
viewing a University of Texas football game with 85,000 fans making the sign
vigorously, repeatedly, and in unison! Another sign that is similar, but has
the thumb thrust out instead of tucked in, is decoded by many people around the
world as I love you.The origin of this sign is in the American Sign Language
(ASL) finger spelling used by deaf communicators.
Many autonomous gestures have no equivalent in other cultures. In France, for
example, one can signal drunkenness by making a fist around the nose and twist-
ing. Many messages have different gestural forms from culture to culture. Notice
how the gestures for suicide in Figure 7-8 reflect the most common methods of
suicide in each culture. The number of speech-independent gestures used within a
culture may vary considerably, from fewer than 100 in the United States to more
than 250 identified with Israeli students.
d
FIGURE 7-6 (continued)
Bill Greenblatt/Stringer/Getty Images
208 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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c
FIGURE 7-7
(a) The vertical horn gesture. (b) The I love yousign. (c) University of Texas football player,
Colt McCoy, gives the schoolsHook em Hornsgesture. (d) Miss America 1995, Heather
Whitestore, a former Miss Alabama, walks down the runway and signs I love youto the
crowd after winning the 74th annual pageant in Atlantic City. (e) The double horn gesture in
Naples means cuckolded.
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Matt Slocum/AP Photo
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 209
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One of the problems in comparing studies of speech-independent gestures
across cultures is the lack of a uniform method for identifying them. Johnson,
Ekman, and Friesens (1975) study of American emblematic gestures offered a sys-
tematic procedure that other researchers may want to use. The authors asked mem-
bers of a particular group or culture to produce emblems associated with a list of
verbal statements and phrases. They reported that after about 10 or 15 informants
had been tested, a great majority of the emblems had been identified. To qualify as
averifiedemblem, at least 70 percent of the encoders must have performed the
action in a similar way. The emblems similarly encoded were then presented to a
group of decoders, who were asked to identify the meaning of the gestures and the
extent to which they reflect natural usage in everyday conversation. Gestures used
primarily for games like charades normally were not considered natural.
Inventions and performances that require speech were also eliminated. At least
70 percent of the decoders also had to match the encoders meaning and judge the
gesture to be used naturally in everyday communication situations. The index fin-
ger pointed at the head can mean smartor stupiddepending on the context,
but if 70 percent of those in a given community say it means stupidwithout
accompanying contextual information, then this is considered a verified emblem
d
e
FIGURE 7-7 (continued)
Tom Costello/AP Photo
2010 PsychoTex/Kevin E. White
210 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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for stupidamong this group. It does not, however, prevent context from chang-
ing the meaning.
SPEECH-RELATED GESTURES
Speech-related gestures, sometimes called illustrators or co-speech gestures,are
directly tied to or accompany speech. The meanings and functions of these
gestures are revealed as we examine how they relate to the attendant spoken
language. Attempts to classify the various types of speech-related gestures have
used different terminology (Efron, 1941, 1972; Ekman, 1977; Kendon, 1989a,b;
McNeill, 1992, 2000; Streeck & Knapp, 1992), but four common types have
emerged:
1. Gestures related to the speakers referent, concrete or abstract
2. Gestures indicating the speakers relationship to the referent
3. Gestures that act as visual punctuation for the speakers discourse
4. Gestures that assist in the regulation and organization of the spoken
dialogue between two interactants
FIGURE 7-8
Cultural variations in suicide gestures: the South Fore, Papua New Guinea (top left); Japan
(bottom); the United States (top right).
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CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 211
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REFERENT-RELATED GESTURES
As we talk, we use gestures to characterize the content of our speech. Sometimes
these movements depict fairly concrete referents, whereas other times, vague and
abstract ideas.
Pointing movements, for instance, can help indicate a specific person, place, or
thing being discussed. In toddlers, the pointing may involve the whole hand or only
the index finger depending on what the child is attempting to communicate (Cochet
& Vauclair, 2010). The referent may be in the immediate conversational environ-
ment or may be more distant, as is the case when an adult says, And where did
you come from before that?while pointing his or her finger in the direction of the
referred-to place. Gestures that draw the referents shape or movement, and ges-
tures that depict spatial relationships, can be used to help a listener visualize fea-
tures associated with concrete referents. When you say, I had to bend the branch
way backor she was eating her food like an animalwhile illustrating how these
events occurred, the gesture bears a close relationship to the concrete semantic con-
tent of your speech. When referent-related gestures outline the referent by drawing
a picture in space, such as making an hourglass figure to signify a shapely woman,
it may be asked whether this is truly speech related. The test for determining
whether such a picture may be speech independent is if 70 percent of the members
of the usage community respond with shapely womanwhen shown the gesture
portrayal without any speech context.
More abstract referents are characterized when we sketch the path or direc-
tion of an idea in the air, when we make a series of circular movements with the
hand or arm to suggest we mean more than the specific words used, and when
we use expansion and contraction gestures such as those of an accordion player
to indicate the breadth of the subject being discussed. Sometimes we represent
abstract content via gestural metaphors. For example, cup-shaped gestures in the
following sample of discourse (McNeill, 1985) represent containers of what could
be supposed. When they spread apart, they seem to convey the idea that anything is
possible, and their sudden disappearance suggests that what might have been did
not happen:
Even though one might [both hands form cups and spread wide apart] have supposed
[cups vanish abruptly].
Thus far the focus has been on the speech-related referents of our gestures.
However, we also gesture when we are trying to solve a problem in silence. These
co-thought gestures reflect our internal thought processes and are not necessarily
intended to communicate information to others. Chu and Kita (2011) found that
when participants were experiencing difficulties in solving a spatial-visualization
problem, such as a mental rotation task, their co-thought gestures went up, and
that these gestures eventually helped them to solve more problems.
GESTURES INDICATING A SPEAKERSRELATIONSHIP TO THE REFERENT
These gestures comment on the speakers orientation to the referent rather than char-
acterizing the nature of the thing being talked about. The positioning of the palms
can show quite different orientations toward ones own message (see Figure 7-9).
212 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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For example, palms up show more uncertainty (I thinkor Im not sure), palms
down show certainty (clearlyor absolutely), palms out and facing the listener
show assertion (Let me say thisor Calm down), and palms facing the speaker
allude to embracing a concept (Ive got this great idea …”). Palm positions can have
other speech-related associations, such as a speakers palms-up gesture when pleading,
begging, or even anticipating closeness in greetings.
Oscillating hand movements suggest that a speaker is unsure or could go either
way. Charles de Gaulle, former president of France, was noted for his grasping
gesture, which many felt signified his desire to control the subject under discussion
(see Figure 7-10).
FIGURE 7-9
Palm gestures.
FIGURE 7-10
Former French President Charles de Gaulles characteristic gesture, perceived by many as grasping
for control of an idea.
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AP Photo/Jean Jacques Levy
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 213
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PUNCTUATION GESTURES
Punctuation gestures accent, emphasize, and organize important segments of the
discourse. Such a segment may be a single word or a larger utterance unit, such as
a summary or a new theme. When these gestures are used to emphasize a particular
word or phrase, they often coincide with the primary voice stress. Punctuation
gestures can also organize the stream of speech into units. When we speak of a
series of things, we may communicate discreteness by rhythmic chopping hand ges-
tures, for example, We must consider A (gesture), B (gesture), and C (gesture).
Sometimes a single chopping gesture after C indicates C will be considered sepa-
rately, or it may mean that A, B, and C will be considered as a group. A slight
downward movement of the head may accompany the hand gestures. Pounding
the hand or fist in the air or on another object also acts as a device for adding
emphasis and visually underlining a particular point being made (see Figure 7-11).
Punctuation can, of course, be accomplished with body movements other than
the hands. The eye flash(not the eyebrow flashdiscussed in Chapters 2 and
10) is one such display (Bull & Connelly, 1985; Walker & Trimboli, 1983). The
momentary widening of a speakers eyelids, without involving the eyebrows, has
been found to occur most often in conjunction with spoken adjectives and is used
for emphasis.
INTERACTIVE GESTURES
Thus far, the gesture categories discussed have focused on the content of the speakers
monologue. Interactive gestures acknowledge the other interactant relative to the
speaker and help regulate and organize the dialogue itself. Because they are directed
at the ongoing involvement and shared roles oftheinteractants,thesegesturesoccur
only in the presence of others. The main function of interactive gestures, then, is to
include the interaction partner in the dialogue. This is usually done through some
form of pointing gesture in the partners direction.
Bavelas (1994) and her colleagues (Bavelas, Chovil, Coates, & Roe, 1995;
Bavelas, Chovil, Lawrie, & Wade, 1992) identified four different types of interac-
tive gestures and the functions they serve.
FIGURE 7-11
Punctuation gestures.
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214 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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1. The speaker and the person spoken to are in the process of exchanging
information so it is natural that this relationship be acknowledged with several
types of gestures that acknowledge the delivery of information. These are
called delivery gestures. These gestures may refer to the delivery of new infor-
mation as in the gestures accompanying Heres my pointin Figure 7-12.
They may also accompany information that the speaker thinks the addressee
already knows with the meaning, As you know …” Other forms of delivery
gestures are also interpreted by the addressee as asides (e.g., Oh, and by the
way ) or an indication that the speaker is asking the addressee to extra-
polate additional information not given as in or whatever.
a. General delivery: “Here’s my point.
c. Seeking help: “What’s the word . . . ?”
b. Citing: As you said earlier . . .
d. Giving turn: “You go ahead.
FIGURE 7-12
Interactive gestures.
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CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 215
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2. Several types of speaker gestures refer to a previous comment made by
the addressee. These are called citing gestures with one type illustrated in
Figure 7-12 when the speaker says, As you said earlier .Citing gestures
also acknowledge an addressees response to a speaker and essentially mean
I see that you understood me.
3. Some interactive gestures are designed to seek a specific response and are appro-
priately called seeking gestures. For example, in Figure 7-12 the speakers ges-
ture is seeking help in identifying a word or phrase he or she wants to use. The
thinking faceis a facial gesture that may also elicit participation from one or
more addressees in a speakers word or idea search. Sometimes, however, the
speaker is seeking agreement from the addressee rather than help and the gesture
means, Do you agree?Gestures that query the addressees understanding are
the verbal equivalent of ya know?at the end of a unit of talk. While seeking
gestures invite responses from an audience, the Goodwins point out that self-
touching contributes to a state of conversational disengagement or the opposite
of inclusion (Goodwin, 1986; Goodwin & Goodwin, 1986).
4. Turn gestures, as noted in more detail in Chapter 12, occur during the
exchange of speaking turns. This may signal you go ahead and talkas illus-
trated in Figure 7-12, but turn gestures may also accompany the taking of a
turn or an awkward transition when no one is assuming the turn at talk.
Although the preceding fourfold classification of speech-related gestures is useful for
understanding how gestures and speech work together, some gestures may not be limited
to a single function. For example, a speakersrelationshipwiththereferentmaybehighly
intense. Some of the gestural displays illuminating this relationship, however, may also
emphasize or punctuate certain specific message units. Nevertheless, we must recognize
that different types of speech-related gestures exist that may serve different functions for
the parties involved. Efrons(1941,1972)cross-culturalcomparisonshowshowhelpful
gestural distinctions can be. He found that assouthernItalianstalked,theymadeexten-
sive use of gestures that had a close resemblance to their referent (e.g., pictorial),
whereas eastern European Jews made very littleuseofsuchgestures.Itseemsreasonable
that different cultures value different kinds of information, and gestures vary accord-
ingly. Even the number of gestures in all categories may vary from culture to culture.
GESTURE FREQUENCY
The frequency of gesturing can be influenced by several key factors.
1. We would expect to find more gestures in face-to-face communication and when
the speaker expects the recipient will see his or her message (Alibali & Don,
2001; Bavelas, Kenwood, Johnson, & Phillips, 2002; Cohen, 1977; Cohen &
Harrison, 1973). We do, of course, use some gestures when our listeners cannot
see us, for example, when talking on a cell phone (see Figure 7-13). We may do
so because the gesturing helps us retrieve a particular word from our mental
lexicon or describe an object (Hadar, 1989; Pine, Gurney, & Fletcher, 2010).
Continued communication without visible contact, however, may reduce the
number of gestures we use in general.
2. Gestures are also likely to increase when a speaker is enthusiastic and involved
in the topic being discussed.
216 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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3. We would expect speakers concerned about their listenerscomprehension of
their messages to use more gestures, tooespecially in difficult or complex
communicative situations, as when the listener is perceived as not paying
attention, the listener is not comprehending, or the speaker cannot find
the right words to express an idea (Bavelas, Coates, & Johnson, 2002;
Goldin-Meadow, 2003; Holler & Beattie, 2003). Even though exposure to
gestures that accompany speech may often facilitate more accurate decoding
on the part of the listener, there are some occasions when the contribution is
negligible (Krauss, Dushay, Chen, & Rauscher, 1995).
4. Speakers trying to dominate conversations would be expected to use more
speech-related gestures.
5. Speech content also plays a role in the number of gestures used. When
answering questions about manual activitiessuch as Explain how to change
a car or bicycle tire,or Explain how to wrap a box for a present”—we
would expect more gestures than when answering questions about visual or
abstract images (Feyereisen & Havard, 1999).
6. A communicators cognitive abilities can affect gesture production. In one
study, the rate of gesturing by speakers with a combination of low phonemic
fluency and high spatial skill was especially high (Hostetter & Alibali, 2007).
7. Cultural background is related to gesture frequency. Americans, for instance,
gesture more than do the Chinese when telling stories (So, 2010).
FIGURE 7-13
Gesture made while speaking on the telephone.
Creatas/JupiterImages
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 217
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8. When people share information that has been learned verbally and visually,
they use more representational gestures compared to when they learn this
information only verbally (Hostetter & Skirving, 2011). Thus, having a mental
image of the to-be-shared information may facilitate gesturing.
As we note in the next section, speech and gesture are intimately linked, and
it would be hard for anyone to abstain completely from gesturing while speaking
for very long. Even if it were possible, it would be ill advised, because gestures
play an important role in communication and cognition. An experiment reported
in a 1931 Soviet publication asked subjects to talk while inhibiting all gestures of
the head, hands, face, and body. It is reported that no one was able to carry out
the instructions completely, and the speech lost its intonation, stress and
expressiveness; even the very selection of words needed for the expression of
content became labored; there was a jerkiness to the speech, and a reduction of
the number of words used(Dobrogaev, 1931). Without gestures, speakers also
would have to increase the number of phrases and words used to describe spatial
relations and would probably pause more often (Graham & Heywood, 1976).
Rimé (1982) found speakersfluency to be adversely affected when their gestures
were restricted. Lastly, adults and children enjoy certain cognitive and memory
benefits from gesturing; for example, gesturing can help children learn a new
concept, recall information they had previously learned, and verbally report
more details of a story they are not familiar with (Cameron & Xu, 2011; Cook,
Mitchell, & Goldin-Meadow, 2008; Cook, Yip, & Goldin-Meadow, 2010; Ping
& Goldin-Meadow, 2010; Stevanoni & Salmon, 2005). Listeners are also likely
to experience a serious loss from not seeing gestures because gestures, like
speech, are listener adapted (Beattie & Shovelton, 2006; de Ruiter, 2007). For
example, when a speaker talks to others who have experienced the event the
speaker is talking about, the speakers gestures are smaller and less precise than
when the same event is communicated to people who have not experienced the
event (Gerwing & Bavelas, 2004). Since gestures are listener adapted, it is no
surprise that they often facilitate comprehension and help listeners access linguis-
tic cues in their memory (Berger & Popelka, 1971; Church, Garber, & Rogalski,
2007; Rogers, 1978; Woodall & Folger, 1981). Actually, a more accurate state-
ment is that gestures synchronized with and supporting the vocal/verbal stream
increase comprehension. This is accomplished through the functions we have
outlined by vivifying ideas, intensifying points, maintaining listener attention
and focus, and marking the organizational structure of the discourse. Gestures
out of synchrony with the vocal/verbal stream are distracting and interfere with
listener comprehension (Woodall & Burgoon, 1981). Experiments conducted by
Krauss and his colleagues (Kraus et al., 1995; Krauss, Chen, & Chawla, 1996)
argue that gestures may not be aiding listener comprehension by contributing
semantic information. Instead, they say, speech-related gestures are more likely to
aid listener comprehension by getting attention, activatingimagesormotoric
representations in the listeners mind, and aiding recall. Moreover, Pine and her
colleagues (2010) would argue that some gestures are bound to the semantic prop-
erties of specific words, and thus do not depend on the presence of a listener. They
found that participants gestured more when describing objects that are more
manipulable (e.g., scissors) versus less manipulable (e.g., a rug), and that this did
218 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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not depend on whether they could see the person they were describing the object
to in the study. Simply put, if physical manipulation is part of the semantic prop-
erties of a word, then speakers are more likely to gesture when describing it.
THE COORDINATION OF GESTURE, POSTURE, AND SPEECH
Earlier we said that speech-related gestures are tied to, or accompany, speech. That
they are connected to speech is easily understood, but the exact nature of that con-
nection is more difficult to understand. Most scholars agree that body movements
and gestures are not randomly produced during the stream of speech but are inex-
tricably linked as parts of the same system. The disagreements among scholars in
this area focus on how to define coordination, or synchrony, of speech and move-
ment. Must two things happen at exactly the same time to be in sync? Must they
happen for the same length of time? If speech and gesture are closely coordinated,
does the same part of the brain control both systems? Is there a synchrony of
speech and movement between two speakers, as well as within the behavior of a
single speaker? This section focuses on the research on these issues. The first part
addresses the coordination of a single speakers speech and movement, and the sec-
ond examines the coordination of two speakersbehavior.
SELF-SYNCHRONY
In the early 1960s, William S. Condon began a microscopic analysis of the coordi-
nation between movement and speech. By examining individual frames of a
16-millimeter film, he was able to match body movements with a speech transcript.
This allowed him to observe speechbody orientation accurate to l/24th of a sec-
ond. Condon (1976) and Condon and Ogston (1966) showed that speech and
movement are rhythmically coordinated even at the most microscopic levels, for
example, in syllables and even smaller sections. This means a change in one behav-
ior, such as the movement of a body part, will coincide or be coordinated with the
onset of change in another behavior, such as in a phonological segment, or in some
other body part. Just as speech units can be grouped together to form larger units,
so can movement units. A sweep of the arm or a turn of the head may occur over
an entire phrase of several words, but we may see movements of the face and fin-
gers coordinated with smaller units of speech. At every level, however, the phrases
of speech production and the phrases of movement seem closely coordinated. Using
digital video annotation, Loehr (2007) examined the rhythmic relationship between
the hands, head, and voice of four speakers during spontaneous interaction. He,
too, found a complex process of self-synchrony. Stressed syllables often aligned
with gestural strokes and even eye blinks.
The smallest idea unit in spoken language is called the phonemic clause. This
group of words, averaging about five in length, has only one primary stress
indicated by changes in pitch, rhythm, or loudnessand is terminated by a juncture.
This unit commonly has shown systematic relationships to body movements. Slight
jerks of the head or hand often accompany the primary stress points in the speech
of American English speakers. Gestures also seem to peak at the most salient part of
the idea unit. At the junctures or boundaries, we also find movements of the head or
hands that indicate completion or initiation.
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 219
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Birdwhistells (1966) analysis of nonverbal activity that accompanies verbal
behavior led him to postulate the existence of what he calls kinesic markers. These
nonverbal behaviors mark a specific oral language behavior. Markers seem to operate
at several different levels. For instance, we might see an eye blink at the beginning and
end of some words, or a microlateral head sweep may be seen during the expression of
a compound word we would hyphenate in the written form. Figure 7-14 shows head,
hand, and eyelid markers occurring at the end of statements and questions. Similarly,
after making a point, speakers may turn the head to one side or tilt, flex, or extend the
neck, signaling the transition to another point.
Another level of markers is characterized by gross shifts in postural behavior,
involving half the body, indicating or marking a sequence of points or a point of view
expressed by the speaker. One marker on this level is simply the shift from leaning back
when listening to leaning forward when speaking. The observation that postural shifts
mark new stages of interaction or topic shifts, particularly at the beginning or ending of
speech segments, has been made by several researchers (Bull & Brown, 1977; Erickson,
1975; Scheflen, 1973). Markers on the next level are frequently complete changes in
location, following the presentation of onestotalpositionduringaninteraction.
Kendons (1972b, 1980, 1987, 1988, 2004) detailed analyses of speech and
body movement confirm the notion of self-synchrony. He also supports the idea of
FIGURE 7-14
Some postural-kinesic markers of syntactic sentences in the United States.
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220 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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a hierarchy of body movements that acts in conjunction with our speech behavior.
Kendon found that the wrist and fingers tended to change positions most often, fol-
lowed by the forearm, then the upper arm. Elements of the face generally changed
more often than the head, and trunk and lower limb movements were rare. The
larger units of body movement were related to the larger units of speech, and the
smaller body units were related to the smaller verbal units.
Kendon also made some important observations of when movements occur in
relation to the speech stream. Some movements accompany speech, but many precede
speech units. The time between the speech-preparatory body movement and the onset
of speech is apparently related to the size of the impending speech unit, with earlier
and more extensive behavior, involving more body parts, for larger speech units.
A change in body posture, for instance, may precede a long utterance and may be
held for the duration of the utterance. Like other researchers in this area, Kendon
believes that the hierarchically structured body movements probably convey informa-
tion about verbal structure and communicative involvement. The positions of the
head, limbs, and body sometimes forecast information to a listener, such as the length
of utterance and change in argument strategy or viewpoint. The act of forecasting
upcoming components of speech through gesture is a crucial function in social inter-
action. Speakers often shift their gaze to their hands during the production of iconic
gestures, thereby calling them to the attention of the listener. Speaker gaze returns to
the listener as the speech unit projected by the gesture is completed. In this process,
gaze acts as a gesture pointer (Streeck, 1993; Streeck & Knapp, 1992).
The linkage of gestures to speech has also been demonstrated in studies that
show how gestures help speakers access and retrieve words from their mental lexi-
con (Hadar, 1989; Krauss & Hadar, 1999; Krauss et al., 1996; Morrel-Samuels &
Krauss, 1992). Support for the word-retrieval function of gestures has been found
using children, adults, and those with a language disability (Hanlon, Brown, &
Gerstman, 1990; Pine, Bird, & Kirk, 2007; Rausher, Krauss, & Chen, 1996).
Hanlon et al. showed that they could improve word retrieval in a picture-naming
task by training aphasies to perform gestures just prior to the naming task. This
important role of gestures in lexical retrieval and speech production is often
overlooked and underemphasized, but it is clear that gestures facilitate both the
invention of messages and their organization and delivery.
The preceding research leads us to conclude that speech and gesture are coordi-
nated. But why? It is most likely because they are two components used in the
expression of a single unit of content. Both systems are being guided by the same
overall purpose, and both systems seem to be under the governance of the same
parts of the brain (Cicone, Wapner, Foldi, Zurif, & Gardner, 1979; Gentilucci &
Dalla Volta, 2008; Kimura, 1976). As Kendon (2000, p. 61) said, [A]lthough
each expresses somewhat different dimensions of the meaning, speech and gesture
are co-expressive of a single inclusive ideational complex, and it is this that is the
meaning of the utterance.It is not unreasonable, then, to assume a pathological
state for people manifesting out-of-sync behavior (Condon, 1980). Nor should it
surprise us that gestures and speech both break down in aphasia (McNeill, 1992).
Developmentally, gesture and speech also appear to grow up together and fol-
low similar developmental trajectories (Göksun, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2010;
Graham & Kilbreath, 2007). Because these gestures occur throughout the lifespan,
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 221
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they can offer clues to the development or deterioration of a persons cognitive and
linguistic skills Goldin-Meadow & Iverson (2010). For instance, Petitto and
Marentette (1991) argue that manual infant babbling,rather than oral babbling,
may serve as a precursor to language learning. Several other studies indicate that
children use more gestures as they develop, just as they use more words, and the
nature of that gesticulation varies with the changing nature of speech production
(McNeill, 1992). Children eventually learn how to combine words and gestures.
Because gesturespeech combinations (pointing at food and saying eat) occur
earlier than speechspeech combinations (eat food) in children, they can serve as
a developmental marker of sorts (Bates & Dick, 2002). Boys, for example, tend to
produce gesturespeech combinations later than girls, and thus also produce speech
speech combinations later than girls do (Ozcaliskan & Goldin-Meadew, 2010).
INTERACTION SYNCHRONY
The preceding section revealed a speechbody movement coordination within the
actions of a single speaker. This section provides information about a speechbody
movement coordination between two speakersa kind of social rhythm (Bernieri &
Rosenthal, 1991). This behavior has been studied in two ways, which we call
matching and meshing.
MATCHING Without always being very aware of it, human beings commonly tend
to mimic the mannerisms, facial expressions, postures, and other behaviors of the
people they interact with. This has been called the chameleon effect(Chartrand
& Bargh, 1999)not because people, like chameleons, change colors to match
their environment, but because people change their postures, gestures, and manner-
isms to match those of their interaction partners. Interestingly, some individuals
are more chameleon-like than others, such as those who tend to see their selfas
more connected to other people (van Baaren, Horgan, Chartrand, & Dijkmans,
2004).
Mimicry usually occurs completely outside of our conscious awareness, even
though we might use matching behavior intentionally when we are trying to com-
municate affiliation. Also, situational factors can affect mimicry; van der Schalk
and colleagues (2011) showed that people are more likely to mimic the facial dis-
plays of members of their ingroup than those of outgroup members. It is worth
noting here that mimicking the behavior of outgroup members, such as people
from a different racial group, may be one way of reducing prejudice toward them
(Inzlicht, Gutsell, & Legault, 2011).
Matching the behavior of our fellow interactant may occur in several different
ways. Sometimes a speakers behavior is followed in kind by the listener when he
or she becomes the speaker (Cappella, 1981). Here the matched behavior occurs
not simultaneously but in sequence. Chapter 11 reports research that shows how
we tend to match our partners utterance duration, loudness, precision of articula-
tion, latency of response, silence duration, and speech rate. We also appear to
mimic the cospeech gestures of others (Holler & Wilkin, 2011). Of importance,
when we mimic gestures we might better understand their meaning (Alibali &
Hostetter, 2010). In some instances, though, the speakersbehaviorelicitsanoffsetting
222 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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or compensatory behavior from the other person. For example, if a speaker is lean-
ing toward a listener and the listener perceives the interaction distance to be too
close, the listener will likely lean away or increase the interaction distance in other
ways (see Chapter 5).
Other researchers have been interested in those occasions when both interac-
tion partners exhibit the same behavior at the same time. Postural congruence is
one of those frequently matched behaviors. It may involve crossing the legs and/or
arms, leaning, head propping, or any number of other positions. Notice the variety
of postural congruence in Figures 7-15, 7-16, and 7-17. When the listeners
behavior is a mirror image of the speakers, this form of matching is called
mirroring.
Postural congruence has been observed to occur during periods of more posi-
tive speech, is rated by observers as an indicator of rapport and cooperation, and
has been established as an act that is influential in creating rapport (Charney,
1966; LaFrance, 1979, 1985; LaFrance & Broadbent, 1976; Trout & Rosenfeld,
1980). Nonconscious mimicry has also been found to occur more often with people
who enter an interaction with the goal to affiliate or establish rapport (Lakin &
Chartrand, 2003), and interpersonal synchrony is stronger among those with a
FIGURE 7-15
Postural congruence. The pair facing each other in the foreground is showing matching postures; the pair facing each
other in the background is showing mirror-image postures.
© Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 223
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prosocial (versus proself) orientation (Lumsden, Miles, Richardson, Smith, &
Macrae, 2011). Of course, a stronger desire to affiliate makes mimicry even more
likely (Yabar, Johnston, Miles, & Peace, 2006). In one study, a trained actor selec-
tively mimicked postures and gestures of only some students in an interview situa-
tion. In a post-interview assessment of their partner, the actor, students who had
FIGURE 7-16
Examples of postural congruence through head propping and leaning.
Avery K. Davis
Fuse/JupiterImages
224 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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FIGURE 7-17
Notice the postural congruence exhibited by cabinet official Joseph Califano and former President
Jimmy Carter, 1977.
AP Photo
AP Photo AP Photo
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 225
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been mimicked evaluated their partner significantly more favorably and indicated
they identifiedwith him or that he thought like me(Dabbs, 1969). None of
the students reported an awareness of the mimicry. Chartrand and Bargh (1999)
also found mimicry to increase the degree of liking on the part of an interaction
partner. In short, mimicry seems to occur more often when we are other-oriented;
for example, when we want to be liked by others, feel concerned about others,
seek a closer relationship with others, show dependence on others, and see our
selfas more connected to other people.
Bavelas and her colleagues would agree that postural mimicry is most likely to
occur when we are other oriented, but they did not find that it was a sign of rapport
or cooperation. Instead, they found that postural mimicry occurred during periods of
conversational involvement rather than during cooperation or periods of rapport.
Bavelas maintains it is a signal that the participants are talking with each other
rather than at each other, performing symmetrical roles rather than complementary
ones. From this perspective, the matching of an interaction partnersnonverbal
behavior reflects the moment-to-moment aspects of conversational involvement.
Bavelas has also studied a related phenomenon she calls motor mimicry.
A common example of motor mimicry is when a person you are near drops a
heavy weight on his or her foot. As the injured party reacts in pain, your wincing
facial expression seems to register an empathic response (see Figure 7-18). For
many years, scholars believed this was a purely empathic reaction based on one
person vicariously experiencing what another person is going through. The work
of Bavelas and her colleagues does not deny this inner experience, but their
research also shows that motor mimicry is primarily a communicative phenome-
non. Wincing in reaction to anothers injury, for example, depended strongly on
the visual accessibility of the injured party (i.e., to what extent can the two make
eye contact with each other?) in Bavelass experiments. Specifically, more motor
mimicry was seen as the probability of eye contact went up. Furthermore, the pat-
tern and timing of the wincers reaction was determined by the probability of eye
contact with the victim (Bavelas, Black, Chovil, Lemery, & Mullett, 1988; Bavelas,
Black, Lemery, & Mullett, 1986). In a related study, Kimbara (2008) found that
visual accessibility to another interactant during a joint description of previously
viewed video clips also led to a greater similarity in the shape of their hand gestures
than the same task without visual access to their partner.
This tendency to match and mimic the behavior of others posturally, facially,
vocally, and so forth, sometimes leads to a condition known as emotional conta-
gion, which occurs when an emotional experience is triggered as a result of mim-
icking someone elses behavior. Two of the essential conditions for this process to
occur include strongly felt emotions and communicators who are skilled encoders
and decoders (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1994). Some people are more sus-
ceptible to emotional contagion than others, which might be a good or bad thing
depending on the emotion being decoded. More susceptible people might feel better
around a happy friend, and more miserable around a sad one. As evidence of this,
Magen and Konasewich (2011) noted that womens positive emotion state was
more likely to suffer than mens after interacting with a troubled friend, thus show-
ing the potential costs associated with womens greater susceptibility to another
persons negative emotion state.
226 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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MESHING Another way of examining the phenomenon of interaction synchrony has
been to observe the ongoing co-occurrence of changes in movement and speech by
each of two interactants. In this type of research, changes refer to the initiation,
termination, speed, and/or direction of the behaviors under study. Like matching
behavior, meshing has also been linked to conversational satisfaction and liking
for ones interaction partner (Cappella, 1997).
a
b
FIGURE 7-18
(a) Former President Ronald Reagan and former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger exchange
similar facial expressions. (b) An onlooker winces in pain as another experiences it.
Jose R. Lopez/The New York Times
© Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 227
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The study of meshing behavior arose out of Condons earlier work on self-
synchrony. He observed how both interactants seemed to coordinate their actions.
One person (Davis, 1971) who viewed his films reported this:
The third film clip Condon showed me was an example of heightened synchrony. A
man and a womanemployer and job applicantsat facing each other in a sequence
that at normal speed seemed merely to involve rather a lot of shifting around, as the
man first uncrossed and then recrossed his legs and the woman stirred in her chair. But
when the film was run through a few frames at a time, their synchrony became clear.
In the same frame, the two began to lean toward each other. They stopped at the same
split second, both raised their heads, and then they swept backwards together into their
chairs, stopping in the same frame. It was very like the elaborate courtship dances of
some birds, orin Condons favorite analogythey were like puppets moved by the
same set of strings. Condon told me that this kind of heightened synchrony happens often
between male and female. During courtship, itsoneofthewaysinwhichvaststatements
can be made between a man and a woman without a word being said. (p. 103)
As Condon suggests, this kind of interaction synchrony may reflect the nature
of the ongoing relationship, whether it is the extent of involvement and rapport or
the degree of intimate, interpersonal knowledge about the other. In some instances,
this relationship is dramatically visible by the kind of synchrony taking place. At
other times, the coordination may be seen only in the microscopic analysis of indi-
vidual film frames. Out-of-sync partners are not likely to value the experience. The
fact that out-of-sync experiences tend to stand out for us reminds us how often we
operate in synchrony with others. Out-of-sync behavior may reflect decreased lis-
tening, a lack of knowledge of ones partner, and ultimately influence what we
remember about the other person (e.g., Miles, Nind, Henderson, & Macrae,
2010). Interaction synchrony may also be a precursor of language learning.
Condon and Sander (1974) found babies 12 hours old whose head, hand, elbow,
hip, and leg movements tended to correspond to the rhythms of human speech.
When the babies were exposed to disconnected speech or to plain tapping sounds,
however, the rhythmic pattern was not observed. If this finding is validated by
other researchers, it may mean an infant has participated in, and has laid the
groundwork for, various linguistic forms and structures long before formal lan-
guage learning begins (see Bernieri, Reznick, & Rosenthal, 1988).
Sometimes our responses as listeners and the feedback we provide in the form
of facial expressions or head movements appear at specific junctures in the speech
of our partner. Vocalizations such as mmm-hmmand I see,and head nods
and movements of hands and feet tend to occur at the ends of rhythmical units of
the speakers utterance, that is, at pauses within phonemic clauses but mainly at
junctures between these clauses. Vocally stressed words also tend to be accompa-
nied by movements. Listener gestures and movements are often indications that
the listener understands, appreciates, or anticipates speaker behavior.
Dittmann (1972) noticed that adults sometimes believe children are not listen-
ing to them and badger them with questions like Did you hear me?Dittmann
reasoned that this common adult perception of children may be associated with
the absence of what he calls listener responsessuch as head nods, some eyebrow
raises, some types of smiles, and verbal acknowledgements such as yeah,and
I see. His study of children in grades 1, 3, and 5 found these listener responses
228 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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to be nearly absent except under the strongest social pullby the other interac-
tant. Subsequent studies indicated the major deficiencies were in mmm-hmmand
head-nod responses. By 8th grade, a dramatic increase in these listener responses
was found. By early adolescence, peers begin to lengthen their response duration,
providing more opportunity for such listener responses. The response pullfrom
adult interactants is increasing, and a continuing movement away from a purely
self-orientation toward imagining what others are experiencing occurs. The detailed
observations of researchers like Condon, Dittmann, and Kendon offer clear evi-
dence that human interactants do exhibit a speechbody movement interaction syn-
chrony. It is also clear that this synchrony may take place on very microscopic
levels. Still, there are questions: How much of this synchrony is due to an ordered
relationship between speech and body movements, and how much is due to coinci-
dence? Are there social contexts that intensify the degree of synchrony? How much
synchrony is desirable? At least one study suggests that moderately rhythmic social
interactions are evaluated most positively (Warner, Malloy, Schneider, Knoth, &
Wilder, 1987). Is it possible to predict which behaviors will synchronize with
which other behaviors at certain times? And, finally, what is the best method of
measuring these minute behavioral changes (Gatewood & Rosenwein, 1981;
McDowall, 1978a,b; Rosenfeld, 1981)?
SUMMARY
Although gestures are difficult to define, we often
seem to know what movements a person is using
to communicate and what movements are merely
nervous mannerisms, expressions associated with
emotion, and task-related movements. Gestures
help us communicate in many ways: They replace
speech when we cannot or do not want to talk
and help us regulate the back-and-forth flow of
interaction. They establish and maintain atten-
tion, add emphasis to our speech, and assist in
making memorable the content of our speech.
Although we do gesture when interaction part-
ners are not visible, such as over the telephone,
gestures are more frequent when both interac-
tants are visible to each other. We seem to use
more gestures when we are knowledgeable
about the topic being discussed, highly motivated
to have our listeners understand our message,
trying to dominate a conversation, excited and
enthusiastic about the topic being discussed,
and speaking about manual activities. Gestures
also play an important role in word retrieval
and speech production. So the absence of ges-
tures may negatively affect the speakers message
as well as a listeners comprehension.
Two major types of gestures were discussed:
speech independent and speech related. Speech-
independent gestures are operationally defined
as gestures that 70 percent of the usage commu-
nity decodes in a similar way. They have an
almost direct verbal definition. We are normally
keenly aware of using this type of gesture.
Culture affects the number, frequency, and mean-
ings associated with speech-independent gestures.
Although no universal gestures of this type have
been foundthat is, none have the same meaning
and form in every culture studiedthe most likely
candidates would be gestures of affirmation and
negation and those meaning stopand Idont
knowand gestures that indicate sleeping, eating,
and drinking. Some speech-independent gestures
are culture specific; that is, they are not found in
the same form in other cultures. Many gestures
have basically the same form but different mean-
ings from culture to culture, and these different
meanings are often the source of cross-cultural
misunderstandings.
The other major category of gestures is
speech-related gestures. Some of these gestures
characterize the content of speech, and some
CHAPTER 7THE EFFECTS OF GESTURE AND POSTURE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 229
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show the speakers relationship to the referent
by indicating whether the speaker is certain or
uncertain, embracing an idea or distancing her-
self or himself from it, and the like. Some speech-
related gestures are used to accent or emphasize
speech units. Interactive gestures, unlike the other
speech-related gestures, focus on the dialogue
rather than the speakers monologue. Interactive
gestures focus on the ongoing involvement of the
interactants and their shared roles.
The last part of this chapter examined the
coordination and synchrony of speech and body
movements. This synchrony between the larger
and smaller units of speech and body is called
self-synchrony. Gesture and speech, then, seem
to be different outward manifestations of a pro-
cess controlled and guided by the same parts of
the brain. Gesture and speech both play a role in
communicating the same content. In addition
to a self-synchrony, interactants also seem to
display coordinated exchanges of behavior in
many ways that suggest the existence of an inter-
action synchrony as well. Interaction synchrony
can manifest itself through matching behavior
similar behavior occurring at the same time (pos-
tural congruence or motor mimicry) or similar
behavior occurring in sequence (one speaker raises
his or her voice, followed by the next speaker rais-
ing his or her voice). Interaction synchrony can
also manifest itself in the moment-to-moment
coordination of changes in the direction and tim-
ing of speech and movement, even though we do
not yet know exactly what behaviors will change
and how they will change.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Spend some time during the day interacting
without using hand gestures. What problems
did you encounter, if any? What does your
experience tell you about the relationship of
gestures and speech?
2. Some researchers have found matching
behavior to be associated with rapport
between the interactants. Can you think of
a situation in which rapport would not
involve matching behavior? Can you think
of a situation in which matching occurred
but there was not much rapport?
3. Can you think of any instance in which ges-
tures might pose a challenge to the doctrine
of freedom of speech?
4. Select a speech-independent gesture. Discuss
the meaning of this gesture when accompa-
nied by different facial expressions and
speech.
230 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN
COMMUNICATION
[CHAPTER8]
The scene is a university library, but it could just as easily be the local supermarket,
bank, or restaurant. What happens takes about half a second and is not noticed by
those experiencing it. Remarkably, however, this event affects their evaluation of
their experience in the library. What could be so mysterious and so powerful?
The answer begins with three researchers at Purdue University (Fisher, Rytting,
& Heslin, 1976), who wanted to investigate systematically the effects of a brief,
seemingly accidental touch in a nonintimate context. They had male and female
clerks return library cards to some students by placing their hand directly over the
students palm, making physical contact; other students were not touched. Outside
the library, a researcher approached the students and asked questions about their
feelings toward the library clerk and the library in general. Students who were
touched, especially the females, evaluated the clerk and the library significantly
more favorably than those who were not touched. This was true for students who
were aware of being touched and those who were not.
Awareness of the power of a seemingly insignificant touch may be one reason
why politicians are so eager to press the flesh (shake hands in political slang).
Touch serves many functions and conveys many messages (Hertenstein, 2011). It
is a crucial aspect of most human relationships, except for those that are exclu-
sively online. The act of touching is like any other message we communicate: It
may elicit positive, neutral, or negative reactions, depending on the configuration
of the touch, the people involved, and the circumstances. We can find happiness in
another persons arms. We may feel indifferent to a handshake done out of
We often talk about the way we talk, and we frequently try to see the way we see,
but for some reason we have rarely touched on the way we touch.
Desmond Morris
231
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deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
convention. And we can be provoked into anger from touching that seems inappro-
priate to us, and reciprocate with a not-so-subtle form of touching ourselves (e.g.,
push, slap, or punch). We know people who respond positively to touching and
need a lot of it, sometimes referred to as touchy-feely types. We also know others
who seem to evaluate almost all touching negatively. Variability in the need for
and to reaction to touch may be related to differences in temperament as well as
childhood experiences. In the next section, we discuss the importance of touching
throughout the life span.
TOUCHING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Tactile communication is probably the most basic and primitive form of communi-
cation. In fact, tactile sensitivity may be the first sensory process to become func-
tional, and it is the most developed sense at birth. In fetal life, the child begins to
respond to vibrations of the mothers pulsating heartbeat, which impinge on the
childs entire body and are magnified by the amniotic fluid. Interestingly, infants
of depressed mothers have been shown to benefit in utero from the massage ther-
apy that their mothers had received (Field, Diego, Hernandez-Reif, Deeds, & Fig-
ueiredo, 2009).
Research shows that touch is critical to normal physiological growth in new-
borns. Maternal licking of rat pups stimulates growth hormone production, and
massage with pressure stimulates weight gain in preterm infants and continues to
be associated with mental and motor development a year later (Field, 1998).
Parentinfant bonding may also be fostered by tactile contact during a critical
period in the first hours after birth, but the research on this is mixed (Hertenstein,
Verkamp, Kerestes, & Holmes, 2006).
Infants gain knowledge of themselves and the world around them through
tactile explorations with their mouths and hands. Their mental representations
depend on the integration of input from touching and seeing objects in their sur-
roundings; for example, a bowling ball is different from a beach ball because
they do not look or feel the same. During early childhood, words accompany
touch until the child associates the two; then words may replace touch entirely.
A mother may gently stroke or pat an infant to console him or her. As the child
grows older, the mother may stroke and pat the child while murmuring encour-
aging words. Eventually, instead of touching the child, the mother may simply
call from another room, Itsallright,Mommyshere.As words replace
touch, an intimate closeness may still be present because of the earlier
associations.
Gender differences show up early. After 6 months of age, girls are not only
allowed but encouraged to spend more time touching and staying near their par-
ents than boys. Harrison-Speake and Willis (1995) gathered adultsviews on the
appropriateness of different kinds of parental touch with children of different ages.
Clear norms were evident: Touch was seen as increasingly inappropriate as chil-
dren grew from toddlers to young teenagers, especially for fathers and for boys.
White respondents were more approving of parental touch than were African-
American respondents, regardless of the kind of touch, the childs age, or the gen-
der of the child or parent.
232 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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Several observations of touching behavior have been made in the context of the
developing childs school experiences. In one study, preschool boys tended to touch
their male teachers more than their female teachers; preschool girls touched tea-
chers of both sexes about equally. The teachers themselves usually touched children
of their own sex more (Perdue & Connor, 1978). However, in general, teachers
may be using nurturing forms of touch less these days because of concerns about
how their touch will be viewed by others (Owen & Gillentine, 2011). Willis and
his colleagues (Willis & Hoffman, 1975; Willis & Reeves, 1976) observed children
in elementary school and junior high school. From kindergarten through sixth
grade, the amount of touching steadily declined but still surpassed most reports of
adult touching. This same trend occurred in junior high, with about half as much
touching as in the primary grades. The most touching occurred between same-sex
dyads. African-American children, especially African-American females, tended to
exhibit more touching behavior. Although touching in the primary grades is more
often initiated with the hands, junior high students showed much more shoulder-
to-shoulder and elbow-to-elbow touching. Junior high females began to show
more aggressive touching, and junior high boys were touched in more places, pri-
marily because of the play fighting so common at that age. During adolescence,
tactile experiences with members of the same sex, and then the opposite sex,
become increasingly important.
The use of touch to communicate emotional and relational messages to the
elderly may be crucial, particularly as the reliance on verbal and cognitive messages
wanes. Although we seem to give the aged in the United States a greater license to
touch others, it is not clear how much others touch them. No doubt the infirmities
of age require more touching, but it may make a big difference whether this
increased touching is merely functional and professional or whether it expresses
affection. Observations of touching in four homes for the elderly revealed that in
such places, females tend to initiate more touching than do males. And, as in child-
hood, same-sex touch is more likely than touch between members of the opposite
sex (Rinck, Willis, & Dean, 1980).
The importance of touch early in life to childrens development and interac-
tions with others has been clearly documented (Feldman, 2011; Moszkowski,
Stack, & Chiarella, 2009; Stack & Jean, 2011). Moreover, even among physically
healthy infants, touch in the form of massage has benefits to infants that should
be of interest to parents, including positive effects on their patterns of sleep (Under-
down, Barlow, & Stewart-Brown, 2010). It seems that, in general, early tactile
experiences are crucial to infantslater physical, mental, and emotional adjustment.
Youngsters who have little physical contact during infancy may be slower to learn
to walk and talk, and some instances of difficulties and retardation in reading and
speech are also associated with early deprivation of, and confusion in, tactile com-
munication. Physical violence in adults may also be related to deprivation of touch
during infancy.
Ashley Montagu (1971) cited many animal and human studies to support the
theory that tactile satisfaction during infancy and childhood is of fundamental
importance to subsequent healthy behavioral development. He maintained that it
is not possible to handle a child too much, as there is every reason to believe
that, just as the salamanders brain and nervous system develops more fully in
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 233
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response to peripheral stimulation, so does the brain and nervous system of the
human being(p. 188). Harlows (1958) famous surrogate motherexperiments
offer supporting evidence from the animal world for the importance of touch for
infants in stressful situations. Harlow constructed a monkey mother figure out of
wire that could provide milk and protection; then he constructed another one out
of sponge rubber and terry cloth that did not provide milk. Because infant mon-
keys consistently chose the terry cloth mother, Harlow concluded that contact com-
fort was a more important part of the motherchild relationship for monkeys than
was sustenance per se. Psychologically, nursing was less important as a food source
and more important as a source of reassuring touch. Maternal touch also has been
shown to reduce the impact of stressful situations on human infants (Feldman,
Singer, & Zagoory, 2010).
WHO TOUCHES WHOM, WHERE, WHEN, AND HOW MUCH?
The amount and kind of contact experienced in adulthood varies considerably with
the age, personality, sex, situation, culture, and relationship of the parties involved.
We explore these factors briefly here (see Chapter 12 for more discussion of gen-
der, dominance, and culture).
There are reports of married couples who have so little to say to each other, or
who find it so difficult to establish closeness through verbal contact, that physical
contact during sexual encounters becomes a primary mode of communication for
establishing closeness. Many factors in the development of American society have
led to a common expectation that touching is conducted only in extremely personal
and intimate relationships, which leads to the belief that all touching is somehow
sensuous in nature. The irony is that long-term intimates probably touch each
other less, and less intimately, than those who are either working to establish a
romantic relationship or working to restore one that is losing intimacy (Emmers &
Dindia, 1995; Guerrero & Andersen, 1991; McDaniel & Andersen, 1998). For
intimates in long-established romantic relationships, the quality of touch has likely
replaced the quantity needed to initially establish the relationship as an intimate
one. In married relations also, people are more likely to reciprocate touch than in
dating relationships (Guerrero & Andersen, 1994).
For some individuals, the contact occurring in a crowded commuter train or
theater lobby is very uncomfortable, especially opposite-sex contacts for women
and same-sex contacts for men. Explanations for such feelings are numerous.
Some children grow up learning not to touch a multitude of animate and inanimate
objects. They are told not to touch their own body and later not to touch the body
of their dating partner. Care is taken so children do not see their parents touch
each other intimately. Touching is associated with admonitions of not niceor
badand is punished accordingly. Because of such experiences, some people
become nontouchers in any situation.
Studies have tried to identify the personality characteristics of people who
enjoy touching and those who do not (Andersen, Andersen, & Lustig, 1987;
Deethardt & Hines, 1983). Sometimes these studies rely on self-reports of touch
avoidance and reactions to touch. Fortunately, the self-description of oneself as
touch avoidant or not has proved to be quite valid in many studies.
234 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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Touch-avoiders stand farther from others, respond negatively to touch in a live
interaction, touch their relationship partners less in public, tend to have lower self-
esteem, and are more likely to be Protestant than Jewish (Andersen, 2005). Non-
touchers, when compared with touchers, report more anxiety and tension in their
lives, less satisfaction with their bodies, and more suspicion of others; they are
also more socially withdrawn and more likely to be rigid or authoritarian in their
beliefs. Men are also more likely to describe themselves as touch avoidant than
women are. Dorros, Hanzal, and Segrin (2008) found that adults who reported a
more positive attitude toward touch had personalities that were more agreeable,
more open to experience, and less neurotic than those who had a more negative
attitude.
Certain situations have a facilitating or inhibiting effect on touching behavior.
Several studies have demonstrated that in public places, where most observational
research is done, touching can be quite infrequent. As an example, Hall and Veccia
(1990) observed 4,500 pairs of people in public places and found that only 15 per-
cent were already touching or engaged in touch during the observation period. Sim-
ilarly, Remland, Jones, and Brinkman (1991) observed dyads in public places in
several European locations and found that people touched in only 9 percent of the
interactions observed.
Henley (1977) gathered peoples opinions on touch patterns and concluded
that people think that the likelihood of touch is increased in the following situa-
tions, which imply underlying themes of power, intimacy, and emotion:
1. Giving information or advice rather than asking for it
2. Giving an order rather than responding to it
3. Asking a favor rather than agreeing to do one
4. Trying to persuade rather than being persuaded
5. Participating in a deep, rather than casual, conversation
6. Interacting at a party rather than at work
7. Communicating excitement rather than receiving it from another
8. Receiving messages of worry from another rather than sending such messages
Greetings and departures at airport terminals are communicative situations
that reflect a higher incidence of touching than would normally be expected. In
one study, 60 percent of the people observed in greetings touched; another study
reported that 83 percent of the participants touched (Greenbaum & Rosenfeld,
1980; Heslin & Boss, 1980). Heslin and Boss found that extended embraces and
greater intimacy of touch were more likely to occur during departures than greet-
ings. The stronger the emotion, as reflected in facial expressions, and the closer
the perceived relationship, the greater the chances of increased touching. Actual
relationship closeness, such as in romantic relationships as opposed to friendships,
has in fact been shown to predict the amount of interpersonal touching in public
(Afifi & Johnson, 1999; Guerrero, 1997).
Another situation likely to show a higher incidence of touch than normally
found in public settings involves team sports. In one study, the touching behavior
of bowlers during league play was observed and found to be far more frequent
than observations during normal social interaction (Smith, Willis, & Gier, 1980).
Similarly, Kneidinger, Maple, and Tross (2001) counted touches made on the field
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 235
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during college baseball and softball games and found a high touching rate, averag-
ing more than 20 touches per inning.
Anthropologists and travelers, as well as researchers, have noted that touch
patterns differ according to culture and nationality. Some cultures seem very tactile,
and others are more hands off(DiBiase & Gunnoe, 2004; McDaniel & Andersen,
1998). We explore this topic further in Chapter 13, but let us note here that
cultures can differ in overall quantity of touch, the contextual rules that determine
when and how people touch, and in the meanings expressed by touch. Research
has not progressed far in mapping out these sources of variation. A strong likeli-
hood is that most touches have common meanings in different cultures, but the
norms for who can touch whom and when follow local customs. Most of our
knowledge about the psychology of touch and other nonverbal behaviors is based
on the study of white Americans.
Gender and relationships influence touching patterns. In his classic study,
Jourard (1966) asked what parts of the body people think are touched most often.
He administered a questionnaire to students, who indicated which of 24 body parts
they had seen or touched on others, or that others had seen or touched on them,
within the previous 12 months. The other people were specified as mother, father,
same-sex friend, and opposite-sex friend. Among other findings, Jourards study
found that females were perceived as considerably more accessible to touch by all
of the people specified than males were. Opposite-sex friends and mothers were
reported as doing the most touching. Many fathers were recalled as touching not
much more than the hands of the subjects. The likelihood of opposite-sex touching
of course depends greatly on the relationship between the parties, and this kind of
touch is more likely when intimacy and familiarity are high (Stier & Hall, 1984).
Jourards data were gathered over 50 years ago. A replication of this study
more than a decade later revealed about the same resultswith one exception
(Rosenfeld, Kartus, & Ray, 1976). It seems that both males and females are per-
ceived as even more accessible to opposite-sex friends than they were in the preced-
ing decade, with increased touching reported for body parts normally considered
more intimate, such as chest, stomach, hips, and thighs. Of course, when people
are asked to recall where they have been touched and how often, there is always
the possibility that these recollections will not be accurate. Jones (1991) found
that the number of body parts actually contacted was consistently fewer than
those anticipated or recalled by students filling out a questionnaire.
We pursue the topic of gender differences in touch further in Chapter 12. Suf-
fice it to say here that the observation of gender differences in nonverbal behavior
raises many interesting questions about determinants. Henley (1977) proposed the
hypothesis that gender differences in touch, as well as several other nonverbal
behaviors, are closely tied to gender differences in dominance and power, with the
general hypothesis being that differences between men and women parallel differ-
ences between powerful and weak people in society at large. The evidence support-
ing Henleys hypothesis is mixed and is undermined by the very inconsistent
evidence of systematic differences in nonverbal behavior, including touching,
according to the dominancepower dimension (Hall, 2011b; Hall, Coats, & Smith
LeBeau, 2005; see Chapter 12). For instance, gender differences have been found
among men and women in supervisory roles, with women reporting nonsexually
236 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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touching their subordinates more than their male counterparts (Fuller et al., 2011).
If power differences solely accounted for gender differences in touching behavior,
one might expect male and female supervisors to report similar levels of positive
touching behavior on the job.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF TOUCHING BEHAVIOR
Argyle (1975) listed the following kinds of bodily contact as most common in
Western culture*:
Type of Touch Bodily Areas Typically Involved
Patting Head, back
Slapping Face, hand, buttocks
Punching Face, chest
Pinching Cheek
Stroking Hair, face, upper body, knee, genitals
Shaking Hands, shoulders
Kissing Mouth, cheek, breasts, hand, foot, genitals
Licking Face, genitals
Holding Hand, arm, knee, genitals
Guiding Hand, arm
Embracing Shoulder, body
Linking Arms
Laying on Hands
Kicking Legs, buttocks
Grooming Hair, face
Tickling Almost anywhere
*We made the following alterations to the original list: (1) changed bottom to buttocks; (2) added genitals to four
categories; and (3) added shoulders to the shaking category.
Morris (1977) reported on field observations that led to the naming of 457
types of body contact, falling into 14 major types of public body contact occurring
between two people. Some of these forms of touch can be seen in Figure 8-1. Some-
times the specific nature of a relationship can be deduced by observing the way
touching is enacted. Morriss major categories of nonaggressive touching include
the following:
1. The handshake. The strength of the tie or desired tie between the participants
can often be observed by watching the nonshaking hand.
2. The body-guide. Here, touching is a substitute for pointing. The person
guiding the others body is frequently the person in charge during that
encounter.
3. The pat. Morris says that when adults pat other adults, it is often a condes-
cending gesture or a sexual one. The well-known exception is the congratula-
tory pat, often on the buttocks, following a successful performance in mens
team sports.
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 237
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4. The arm-link. This may be used for support when one person is infirm, but it
is also frequently used to indicate a close relationship. The person in charge,
says Morris, is less likely to be the person grasping the others arm.
5. The shoulder embrace. This half-embrace is used in malefemale romantic
relationships as well as to signify buddies in malemale relationships.
6. The full embrace or hug. This gesture frequently occurs during moments of
intense emotion, sporting events, romance,greetings,andfarewells.Itisalsoused
ritualistically to show a relationship closer than a handshake would indicate.
7. The hand-in-hand. When adults hold hands with children, it is designed for
support, to keep children close, or to protect them. As adults, handholding
suggests an equality within the relationship, because both parties are perform-
ing the same act. It is often thought of in opposite-sex relationships, but
same-sex handholding is not uncommon, even between males (e.g., children,
high-contact cultures).
8. The waist embrace. According to Morris, the waist embrace is frequently
substituted for the full embrace when the participants wish to signal more inti-
macy than handholding or a shoulder embrace yet still remain mobile.
9. The kiss. The location, pressure, duration, and openness of a kiss help signal
the closeness or desired closeness between two people at a particular moment.
10. The hand-to-head. Given the highly vulnerable nature of the head area, letting
someone touch us on the head shows a trusting, often intimate, relationship.
11. The head-to-head. Two people touching heads render them incapable of
regarding other ongoing activities in a normal manner, so this is usually
thought of as an agreement by both parties to shut out the rest of the world
a condition especially common to young lovers.
12. The caress. This signal is associated with romantic feelings for a partner,
although like any signal, it can be used by nonintimates who are trying to
deceive others about the depth of their relationship.
13. The body support. Parents often support children by carrying, lifting, or let-
ting them sit in their laps. Such support may be sought among adults in play-
ful situations, or when one person feels physically helpless.
14. The mock attack. Aggressive-looking behaviors are sometimes performed in a
nonaggressive manner: for example, arm-punches, hair-rufflings, pushes,
pinches, and ear-nibbles. We sometimes allow or even encourage such gestures
with friends to show the range of behavioral understanding between us. And
sometimes these mock-attack touches are substitutes for more loving touches
that may be too embarrassing, such as in the case of some fathers wishing to
show love for their sons.
Another method of categorizing the various types of touching was undertaken
by Heslin and Alper (1983). This taxonomy is based on the functions of the mes-
sages communicated and ranges from less personal to more personal types of
touch. Accidental touches and aggressive touches seem to be a part of the intimacy
continuum but are not presented in this list.
1. Functional/professional. The communicative intent of this impersonal, often
cold and businesslike, touching is to accomplish some task or to perform some
service. The other person is considered an object or nonperson to keep any
238 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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FIGURE 8-1
Some common forms of touch. (a) Full embrace. (b) Shoulder embrace. (c) Arm-link. (d) Kiss.
(e) Head-to-head.
c
d
e
b
a
fStop/Alamy
Alistair Berg/Digital Vision/Getty Images
Blend Images/Getty Images
Goodshot/Jupiter Images
Siri Stafford/Getty Images
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 239
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intimate or sexual messages from interfering with the task at hand. Examples
of such situations may include a golf pro with a student, a tailor with a cus-
tomer, or a physician with a patient.
2. Social/polite. This type of touching affirms the other persons identity as a
member of the same species, operating by essentially the same rules of conduct
as functional or professional touch. Although the other is treated as a person,
there is still very little perceived involvement between the interactants. The
handshake is the best example of this type of touching. Although the hand-
shake is only about 150 years old, it was preceded by a handclasp, which goes
back at least as far as ancient Rome.
3. Friendship/warmth. This kind of touching behavior begins to recognize more
of the other persons uniqueness and expresses a liking for that person. It is
oriented toward the other person as a friend. However, this type of touch may
engender uneasiness, because it can be misunderstood as intimate or sexual
touching. Private situations may exacerbate this problem, so it probably
will take place in public if the toucher anticipates the possibility of
misinterpretation.
4. Love/intimacy. When we lay a hand on the cheek of a person, or when we
fully embrace that person, we are probably expressing an emotional attach-
ment or attraction through touch. The other person is the object of feelings of
intimacy or love. The various kinds of touching at this point are probably the
least stereotyped and the most adapted to the specific other person.
5. Sexual arousal. Although sexual arousal is sometimes an integral part of love
and intimacy, it also may have characteristics distinct from that category. Here
we are primarily looking at touch as an experience of physical attraction only.
The other person is, in common parlance, a sex object.
Morris (1971) proposed that heterosexual couples in Western culture normally
go through a sequence of steps, similar to courtship patterns in other animal spe-
cies, on the road to sexual intimacy. Aside from the first three, notice that each of
the following steps involves some kind of touching: eye to body, eye to eye, voice
to voice, hand to hand, arm to shoulder, arm to waist, mouth to mouth, hand to
head, hand to body, mouth to breast, hand to genitals, and genitals to genitals or
mouth to genitals. Frotteurism is a clinical disorder that represents an extreme devi-
ation from this courtship pattern in which the afflicted person (usually male) may
quickly grab and rub the genitals of an unsuspecting person (usually female) in a
crowded place and fantasize about having an intimate relationship with her during
the contact.
It is a challenge to study touching behavior at all. Because people do not touch
much in public, at least in Western societies (see Chapter 13 for more on culture),
observers must wait long periods, and observe a great many people, to see many
touches. Furthermore, the private settings in which touch occurs more often tend to
be ones to which researchers do not have access. Therefore, naturalistic observation
is more difficult and time-consuming than for other kinds of nonverbal behavior.
For this reason, touch researchers use self-report methodology relatively more. To
demonstrate effects of touch, other challenges arise. Often, to create experimental
control, experimenters will train helpers (called confederates) to deliberately engage
240 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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in the behavior, or not, as in the library study mentioned earlier. Experiments are an
important way of studying the impact of specific behaviors. Lewis, Derlega, Shankar,
Cochard, and Finkel (1997) offer a valuable caution about the use of confederates
who are expected to control their behavior precisely. Despite training, confederates
may have difficulty controlling one behavior, such as touch, without simultaneously
changing other behaviors, such as smiling and gazing. It is sometimes hard, there-
fore, to know which behavioral cue was crucial in influencing the recipient of the
cues. A critical reader is wise to consider possible confounding effects of unintended
cues when evaluating research with these designs.
THE MEANINGS AND IMPACT OF INTERPERSONAL TOUCH
Data gathered by Jones and Yarbrough (1985) indicate a wide range of meanings
associated with touch. In their study, 39 male and female university students
recorded the details of each touch experience over a 3-day period. Over 1,500 acts
of social touching were analyzed. The following discussion incorporates their find-
ings, along with others.
TOUCH AS POSITIVE AFFECT
Positive touching may involve support, reassurance, appreciation, affection, and
sexual attraction, or, if the touch is sustained, it may send a message of inclusion
(i.e., Were together). The enhanced positive affect that can be produced by
even fleeting touches may generalize to the entire local environment, as found in
the library study described at the beginning of this chapter and in the consumer
studies of Hornik (1991, 1992) in which shoppers touched by student greeters eval-
uated the store more favorably. A light, comforting pat by a female has been
shown to even increase the financial risk-taking behaviors of others, presumably
because they feel more secure (Levav & Argo, 2010).
Some kinds of touching behavior from nurses would fit into the category of
positive touching, if it is perceived as comforting and relaxing to the patient. Back
rubs and massages may also express positive feelings from a friend but may be per-
ceived as task related when performed by a professional massage therapist. Psy-
chotherapists, too, recognize the importance of performing touch in such a way
that it communicates positive regard but not too much intimacy. If touch is per-
ceived as an indication of interpersonal warmth, it may bring forth other related
behaviors, including increased verbal output from patients and improved patient
attitudes toward nurses (Aguilera, 1967; Pattison, 1973).
TOUCH AS NEGATIVE AFFECT
The students in Jones and Yarbroughs study did not report many touches in this
category, but we clearly perceive some touches as an expression of negative atti-
tudes and emotions. An expression of anger or frustration may be conveyed by hit-
ting, slapping, pinching, or tightly squeezing anothers arm so the person cannot
escape. Generally, negative touch is much more likely among young children than
adults.
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 241
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TOUCH AND DISCRETE EMOTIONS
Touch can do more than convey generalized positive and negative affect; it can
convey discrete emotions, and may even be the preferred channel for communi-
cating certain feelings, such as love and sympathy (App, McIntosh, Reed, &
Hertenstein, 2011). Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, and Jaskolka (2006)
videotaped participants (touchers) while they tried to convey different emotions
just by touching the hand and forearm of another person (recipients). Viewers
who watched the video were able to identify, at levels better than guessing, the
emotions of anger, fear, happiness, disgust, love, sympathy, and disgust. Analysis
of the videos provided insight into how these emotions were conveyed. For exam-
ple, sympathy was expressed with stroking and patting, anger with hitting and
squeezing, and disgust with a pushing motion. There were also differences in
intensity and duration.
Unlike other nonverbal cues, touch can be experienced both by seeing it and by
receiving it. Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, and Jaskolka (2006) also asked the
original recipients of the touch to guess what emotion was the toucher was trying
to convey. They could not see the touches, because the touching was done while
their arm was sticking through a curtainthey could only feel the touches. Anger,
fear, disgust, sympathy, love, and gratitude could be identified at better than gues-
sing levels, but some other emotions could not be accurately identified by those
receiving them, such as embarrassment, envy, pride, happiness, and surprise. In a
follow-up study by Thompson and Hampton (2011), though, romantic couples
but not strangers were able to communicate pride and envy to each other via
touch. This finding suggests that the relationship between two people may be
important to either the encoding or the decoding of emotions that are more self-
focused in nature among touchers.
People can also identify discrete emotions on another persons face by feeling
that persons face with their hands, as a blind person might doanother connec-
tion between touch and emotion. Even normally sighted individuals with no special
experience in doing this decoded six emotions at levels well above guessing, with
the highest accuracy for happiness, sadness, and surprise (Lederman et al., 2007).
TOUCH AS PLAY
Sometimes we interpret the touching we give and receive as attempts to reduce
the seriousness of a messagewhether it is affection or aggression. When one
person goes through the motions of landing a knockout punch on the other per-
son, then stops the forward movement of the fist just as it makes contact with
the other persons skin, the message is Im not fighting, Im playing.An accom-
panying smile or laugh may further reinforce this message. The ultimate in playful
touch is tickling, a phenomenon first addressed by psychologists nearly a century
ago and discussed even by Charles Darwin. One question is why we cannot tickle
ourselves, and whether the otherwho does the tickling must be human or
could as easily be a mechanical device. According to Harris and Christenfeld
(1999), a machine can tickle as well as a person provided there is an element of
unpredictability to it.
242 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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TOUCH AS INFLUENCE
Touch is associated with influence when its goal is to persuade the other to do
something. Jones and Yarbrough called these compliance touches, which may
include a variety of behaviors from fulfilling social obligations to actual helping
behavior, as evidenced by the following studies:
Waitresses who touched diners got bigger tips (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984).
Relative to nontouched customers, those who were touched briefly by their
waitress drank more alcohol compared to their partners (Kaufman & Maho-
ney, 1999). Customers in stores who were touched by a greeter spent more
time shopping and bought more (Hornik, 1991, 1992).
Psychologists who touched students on the shoulder when requesting help
obtained greater compliance (Patterson, Powell, & Lenihan, 1986), and people
who were touched after agreeing to fill out a survey answered a significantly
larger number of items than people who agreed but were not touched
(Nannberg & Hansen, 1994).
Practitioners who had touched patients got greater medication compliance
from them relative to those whom they did not touch (Guéguen, Meineri, &
Charles-Sire, 2010).
In one study, people were touched on the arm for 1 second or less by a
stranger who asked them to hold on to a very active, large dog for 10 minutes
while the stranger went into a pharmacy (Guéguen & Fischer-Lokou, 2002);
even this very slight tactile contact produced a greater willingness to hold on
to the dog. Similarly, a female confederate asking for a cigarette from female
strangers was more likely to get one if she touched the stranger slightly on the
forearm (Joule & Gúeguen, 2007). In that study, unlike Fisher, Rytting, and
Heslins (1976) library study described at the beginning of the chapter, com-
pliance was greater among those who remembered being touched.
Even without a direct request, being touched can increase helpfulness; when
a toucher walked away and then dropped his possessions as if by accident,
the person who was touched was more helpful (Guéguen & Fischer-Lokou,
2003).
The psychological mechanism accounting for these findings is likely to be positive
affect and the personal bonding that may be implied (nonconsciously) by even a
fleeting and seemingly insignificant touch between strangers. These findings suggest
that one could try to use touch manipulatively. For example, women could use
touch to attract mens attention, given that a field study, which utilized a bar set-
ting, showed that men displayed stronger courtship intentions when they had been
touched (as opposed to not) by a woman confederate (Guéguen, 2010). Such
efforts would of course backfire if the touch recipients did not like the touch, if
they perceived a manipulative intent, or if the implied personal bonding was too
threatening. Regarding the latter, men in Poland were found to be less likely to
agree to a request from a man who had touched them first, presumably due to
homophobic attitudes (Dolinski, 2010).
Aside from using touch to achieve discrete goals, such as bigger tips or a
favor, people may also use touch for more general impression-management
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 243
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purposes; for example, to convey the impression of strength, dominance, or self-
confidence. Barack Obama often grips another personsupperarmwithone
hand while shaking hands with the other. He may do this to convey an aura of
being in control, though he could also intend to convey warmth and friendliness.
Whatever the motive, the recipient might interpret it as either a welcome expres-
sion of solidarity or an offensive act of interpersonal control. Touch exemplifies
the ambiguous nature of much nonverbal communication: It is hard to know
what the touchers intention is, and the toucher may not be able to predict the
recipients reaction.
TOUCH AS INTERACTION MANAGEMENT
We try to structure or control conversations, or elements of conversations, in many
ways. These management touches may guide someone without interrupting verbal
conversation; get someones attention by touching or tugging at that persons arm,
or tapping him or her on the shoulder; indicate or mark the beginning (greeting) or
end (good-bye) of a conversation; or fulfill some ritualistic function, such as touch-
ing a babys head at a baptism.
TOUCH AS PHYSIOLOGICAL STIMULUS
Obviously, touch is preeminently important at all stages of sexual interaction.
Touch is also a strong but complex stimulus in more mundane interactions. When
people are in experiments in which they are forewarned that they will be touched
in a professional, innocuous manner, researchers find predictable heart rate
decreases (Drescher, Gantt, & Whitehead, 1980), which is said to demonstrate
that touch is intrinsically calming and relates to the evolutionary importance of
motherinfant bonding. However, when touch is unexpected and/or unexplained,
the heart rate goes up; for example, when females were touched unexpectedly on
the wrist for 10 seconds by a male experimenter, a significant increase in heart
rate was found, and, moreover, all subjects showed increases in blood pressure in
this condition compared to a no-touch condition and a condition in which touch
was expected, such as taking a pulse (Nilsen & Vrana, 1998). Such research under-
scores that the impact of touch depends on socialcontextual factors and on the
interpretations given to the touch.
TOUCH AS INTERPERSONAL RESPONSIVENESS
Sometimes the meanings attributed to touch concern the level of involvement,
responsiveness, or activity of the communicator (Afifi & Johnson, 1999). Some-
times touch simply means that the intensity of the interaction, or the interactants
level of involvement in the conversation, is high. Interpersonal responsiveness may
be perceived as positive affect when it is mutually felt, or when one person feels he
or she contributed to the others behavior. Probably more than any other nonver-
bal behavior, acts of touch that are perceived as deliberate are extremely salient in
interaction; they are almost certain to be noticed and are likely to produce strong
reactions, either positive or negative.
244 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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TOUCH AS TASK RELATED
There are times when we need to help someone get out of a car, or our hands
touch as the result of passing something back and forth. These touches, associ-
ated with the performance of a task, are similar to what Heslin called functional/
professional touch. As people get older, they may need assistance walking, given
that falling is more likely among the elderly. It is interesting to note here that
even a light touch, something that might be done by aides in a nursing home,
has been shown to reduce postural sway in the elderly (Johannsen, Guzman-
Garcia, & Wing, 2009).
As with any other message, the two communicators may not share a similar
meaning for the touchor one person may deliberately try to mislead another. A
not unfamiliar example of the latter is when one person touches another in a jok-
ing context but intends the touch to be a step toward intimacy. Such a blending of
functions has also occurred in studies, such as the library study described earlier:
the touch occurred during task performance (namely, while handing the library
card to the patron), but the effect was positive-emotional.
TOUCH AS HEALING
A miraculous cure is one that cannot be explained by recognized medical or phys-
iological therapy. Throughout recorded history, wondrous healings of the sick
and infirm by religious workers, royalty, and other charismatic persons have had
interpersonal touch as a major ingredient. Jesus was said to heal by touch, and he
was often described as being surrounded by crowds hoping for his touch. The
French and English kings were widely believed to be able to accomplish healing
by the laying on of hands. Edward I of England is documented to have touched
938 of his subjects suffering from scrofula in the 28th year of his reign (Older,
1982). In later centuries, including our own, healing touch became the province
of ministers and of others who attribute the healing touch to the power of God.
The healing power of touch in so-called miraculous cases has not been studied in
a controlled way that could establish its effectiveness or the mechanisms by which
it may work. Although it may be difficult to rule out the power of God or some
unknown physical forces, Older (1982) attributes inexplicable cures to psycholog-
ical factors:
The patient feels a great need for improvement.
The patient has profound trust in the healers powers.
The patient is part of a group that increases pressure and adds encouragement.
There is a shared, irrational belief system, usually of a religious nature.
Emotions are at a high pitch in the patient and in any onlookers.
Currently, the medical and nursing professions have shown renewed interest
in touching as a form of therapy (Borelli & Heidt, 1981; Kerr, Wasserman, &
Moore, 2007; Krieger, 1987). Some touch therapies involving what researchers
call light touch have been shown to reduce pain (Kerr, Wasserman, & Moore,
2007). Massage, long known for its relaxing and pleasurable properties, has pos-
itive effects on other outcomes such as brain activity, attentiveness and alertness,
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 245
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pain relief, anxiety and depression, stress hormones, sleep, appetite, pulmonary
function in asthmatic children, immune function, weight gain in preterm infants,
and other clinical indicators of health (Field, 1998, 2001, 2010; Field, Diego, &
Hernandez-Reif, 2007). It has been suggested that specific neurologic (electroen-
cephalogram) and parasympathetic nervous system activity (e.g., the pressure sti-
mulates the vagal nerve, which lowers physiological arousal and stress
hormones) may be the mechanisms underlying massages favorable impact on
peoples well-being (Field, 2010). Even a single massage-therapy session has ben-
eficial effects on anxiety, blood pressure, and heart rate (Moyer, Rounds, &
Hannum, 2004).
Whether owning pets is, in general, associated with positive health outcomes is
not a settled empirical matter (Herzog, 2011; Wells, 2011). Nevertheless, the bene-
ficial effects of touch may partially underlie whatever positive physiological and
psychological effects pets have on us, because our relationships with pets typically
entail high levels of touching (Allen, 2003). Because touch can be so comforting
and physiologically beneficial, researchers in one study were surprised at how little
supportive touching took place between parents and their children with cancer dur-
ing painful medical procedures, such as a lumbar puncture. Based on videotape
analysis, over one-quarter of the children received no supportive touch when they
needed it most (Peterson et al., 2007).
Mental health professionals and physicians debate whether touch should be
incorporated into the therapeutic process (Hetherington, 1998; Smith, Clance, &
Imes, 1998; Young, 2007). Risk of sexual involvement, or simply risk that clients
will take offense, is weighed against the potential value of human physical contact
during stressful moments. Certainly therapists, and medical doctors as well, need to
be highly sensitive to the responses that clients may have to being touched.
According to some, especially in the nursing profession, healing can be accom-
plished even without any actual touch. The method called therapeutic touch (TT)
has been widely claimed as effective for many physical conditions when used by
practitioners who strongly endorse the concept. The TT practitioner moves the
hands above, not on, the patients body, and in so doing supposedly influences the
energy field surrounding the patient, with therapeutic benefit. Believers and skeptics
have debated whether this method is any better than a simple placebo, but little
empirical research has been conducted to settle the issue. One study, however, has
shown that TT training resulted in positive shifts in the self-reported health of
nurses (Tang, Tegeler, Larrimore, Cowgill, & Kemper, 2010). Nonetheless, a
study published in a prestigious medical journal casts serious doubt on one of
TTs basic principlesthat the experienced TT practitioner can detect the energy
emanating from another persons body (Rosa, Rosa, Sarner, & Barrett, 1998).
Experienced TT practitioners serving as subjects were told that the experimenter
would hold her own hand over one of the subjects handsblocked from the sub-
jects view by a screenand all the subject had to do was guess which of their
hands (left or right) the experimenters hand was over. Much to the subjectssur-
prise, guess was an apt word, because in fact, their accuracy was no better than
chance, meaning they could not detect an energy field around the experimenters
hand. Thus, this well-controlled study strongly suggested that TT adherents are
guided more by faith than science.
246 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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TOUCH AS SYMBOLISM
Perhaps because touch outside of intimate relationships is so infrequent, it is highly
salient when it occurs. Touch can be so fraught with meaning that the act of touch
itself comes to represent the significance of the relationship, ritual, or occasion. The
touch shown in Figure 8-2 between Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian
leader Yasir Arafat on the day they announced an IsraeliPalestinian reconciliation
says more than words could. Ironically, that same handshake apparently sparked
Rabins assassin to plan the prime ministers death (With a Handshake,1995).
Sometimes, the symbolism of a touch is experienced at a very personal level
through ones own experience of touch. We are all familiar with photographs of
screaming fans reaching out to touch a famous rock star or professional athlete
(e.g., the Lambeau Leap). Even in everyday situations, people often find value in
touching someone who is important to them. They might say proudly, I shook
his hand!The vicarious symbolic power of touch is sometimes evident even when
the actual touch is one step removed from the actual person, as when one can
touch or possess a remnant or other souvenir of the important person. Even an
autograph fits this description, because the important person has touched the pen
and paper. Certainly, throughout the history of Christianity, it has been very mean-
ingful to claim to own a piece of a saints body or clothing.
Figure 8-3 vividly portrays an audience reaching out to touch President Bush.
One study of touch patterns in a state legislature noted that though the governor
was touched by many, he was not seen to touch anyone during the observation
period (Goldstein & Jeffords, 1981). The daughter of the Buddhist Panchen Lama,
a holy man second in importance to the Dalai Lama, recollected a trip to Tibet
when she was 7 years old: They told me that there were people lining the road
FIGURE 8-2
Rabin and Arafat shaking hands.
Ron Edmonds/AP Photo
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 247
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for fifty miles. Thousands and thousands of people, all wanting to touch me
(Hilton, 2004). On another trip, at age 17, she told of being exhausted by the
crowds surrounding her. But, she said, I cant complain, because it makes them
so happy to see me and to touch me.But she had to ask her bodyguards to stop
them from lifting up her skirt to get to her legs.
Touching in these scenarios gives touchers the feeling of acquiring something
important: something has rubbed off on them. It does not always seem to matter
whether the significant other person is the toucher or the recipient of the touch.
What is rubbed off can vary, too. Sometimes it is vicarious power: One can feel
more important among peers after touching a famous person. Other times, what is
gained is less definable though no less important: We might say that one feels one
has acquired some piece of the others essence through touch. Whatever the valu-
able quality possessed by the other, people feel they have gained a bit of it through
even a very minor touch. This somewhat magical way of thinking has its reverse
side, too, when we feel contaminated by touching or being touched by undesirable
people. It is surely no coincidence that members of the lowest caste in traditional
Hindu society in India were called untouchables.
FIGURE 8-3
The audience is eager to touch President Bush after one of his speeches.
Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux
248 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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CONTEXTUAL FACTORS IN THE MEANING
OF INTERPERSONAL TOUCH
The meanings of touch depend on many environmental, personal, and contextual
variables, as previous sections have made clear. Indeed, it is likely that much of
the time, the meaning of touch derives from such qualifying variables and not
from the nature of the touch per se. Often, touch intensifies ongoing emotional
experiences rather than conveying specific meanings or messages. The relation-
ship between the interactants provides important context for interpreting the
meaning of touch. A touch on the arm, which might be interpreted as a social/
polite or merely friendly gesture between strangers, may acquire sexual overtones
if a friendly relationship already exists. An embrace may take on different inti-
macy connotations if displayed by two men versus two women (Floyd, 1999), or
if two men embrace on the sports field versus in a bar (Kneidinger, Maple, &
Tross, 2001).
Interpretations of touch are also related to other contextual variables such as
duration, the specific form of the touch, other cues, and other contextual features,
singly and in combination; for example, a touch might seem more intimate if it is
accompanied by other signals, such as prolonged gaze, or if the touch is held an
instant too long, if the environment is private, and so forth. A brief shoulder
touch by waitpersons to their customers resulted in bigger tips, but especially if it
was opposite-gender touching in a bar (Hubbard, Tsuji, Williams, & Seatriz,
2003). Friendship/warmth touching may be more likely to occur in public settings
between people who are not intimate, because the same kind of contact in private
is more likely to take on connotations of love or sexual intimacy. Certain parts of
the body connote greater intimacy than other parts, but intimacy is also linked to
the manner of touch. For instance, a touch and release on any part of the body is
likely to be perceived as less intimate than a touch and hold.
Men and women may also attribute different meanings to similar types of
touch. In a hospital study by Whitcher and Fisher (1979), female nurses touched
patients during an explanation of procedures prior to surgery. Females reacted pos-
itively, showing lower anxiety, more positive preoperative behavior, and more
favorable postoperative physiological responses. But men who were touched in the
same way reacted less positively. A similar result was obtained by Lewis and collea-
gues (1995), who obtained ratings of photographic representations of nurses touch-
ing or not touching patients at the bedside. Men who looked at the photos rated
both male and female nurses as more supportive if they did not touch the patient,
whereas women viewers thought the nurses were more supportive if they did.
Heslin, Nguyen, and Nguyen (1983) found that men and women responded
differently in a questionnaire study regarding people from whom touching would
be considered the greatest invasion of privacy. Women indicated that touch from a
stranger would be the greatest invasion of privacy, whereas men felt that touch
from a same-sex person would be the greatest invasion of privacy. Men reported
themselves to be as comfortable with touch from women strangers as they were
with touch from women friends. Both men and women agreed that the most pleas-
ant type of touch was stroking in sexual areas by an opposite-sex friend. But the
second most pleasant type of touch reported by women was for a male friend to
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 249
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stroke nonsexual areas, whereas the second most pleasant type of touch reported
by men was for a female stranger to stroke sexual areas.
Although sexual touching is often thought of as something people do in
romantic relationships, it appears that it is becoming increasingly common among
people who are just friends (friends with benefits [FWB]) as well as those who are
not even emotionally involved with each other and have no plans to be (a hookup).
One study found that 60 percent of women reported having had a hookup by the
end of their first semester of college (Fielder & Carey, 2010b). Here, sexual touch-
ing (hand to genitals, mouth to genitals, intercourse, etc.) must be mutually under-
stood as a means of achieving sexual satisfaction as opposed to romantic
relationship building or maintenance. This does not mean that the reasons for or
consequences of engaging in this type of touching are the same for men and women.
In an Internet-based study of people in FWB-type relationships, men reported being
more motivated by sex to begin such relationships, whereas women were more
motivated by the emotional connection (Lehmiller, VanderDrift, & Kelly, 2011).
Although both men and women appear to experience more positive than negative
emotional reactions to their FWB relationships, only women in one study reported
increased emotional distress from their hookups involving some form of penetra-
tion (Fielder & Carey, 2010a; Owen & Fincham, 2011). Marital status influences
how men and women interpret different kinds of touches. Over 300 individuals
who were in an intimate relationship, either married or not, reported on what it
meant to them when their significant other touched them on various parts of the
body (Hanzal, Segrin, & Dorros, 2008). Confirming results found by Nguyen,
Heslin, and Nguyen (1976), unmarried men found more pleasantness and warmth
or love in being touched than unmarried women did, but this pattern was reversed
among those who were marriedin this group, the women found greater reward in
being touched. Moreover, this result was not due to the difference in age between the
unmarried and married groups.
TOUCH CAN BE A POWERFUL NONCONSCIOUS
FORCE IN INTERACTION
As studies cited earlier indicate, being touched can influence our perceptions,
moods, and behaviors even when it is fleeting, subtle, and possibly even unnoticed.
But just as the influence of touch can be nonconscious on the part of the person
being touched, so too can it be nonconscious on the part of the toucher. Ackerman,
Nocera, and Bargh (2010) showed that the weight or texture of objects being
touched (e.g., holding a light versus heavy clipboard) can nonconsciously influence
how the toucher views people and interactions. Another example can be found in
the phenomenon called facilitated communication, a technique developed for
improving the communication of individuals with autism, mental retardation, and
physical diseases that impair motor abilities and communication, such as cerebral
palsy. Facilitated communication was hailed on several continents as a break-
through in the ability of speech-impaired individuals to communicate, and it
became widely practiced and taught in the 1980s and 1990s (Jacobson, Mulick, &
Schwartz 1995; Spitz, 1997).
250 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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How does facilitated communication work? The technique is based on close
tactile contact between the facilitator and the communicator, as well as a close psy-
chological relationship in which trust is established. The facilitator holds and stead-
ies the communicators hands while the communicator types words or sentences on
a keyboard. Using this method, many communication-impaired clients typed out
highly revealing, often eloquent accounts of their feelings and thoughts. To many
observers, it seemed that at last individuals with impairments could overcome their
isolation and break out of their terrible enforced silence. Or so it seemed.
Unfortunately, facilitated communication proved not to reveal the impaired
communicatorsthoughts, but rather the thoughts of the facilitators themselves.
Research showed that the communicators were able to answer questions only
when their facilitator knew the question and its answer, and communicators
responses often seemed much too verbally advanced for their intellectual level. In
fact, communicators could even type out answers to questions when they were not
looking at the keyboard (Kezuka, 1997; Spitz, 1997). Proceeding against a wave of
protest by those who believed in the system, researchers persisted in conducting
controlled experiments that ultimately revealed that often the facilitated communi-
cation effects were due to the facilitator nonconsciously guiding the communica-
tors hand to type out what was in the facilitators mind. Research showed that
when facilitators were fed incorrect information about the communicators back-
ground, and then had to ask the communicator about those same facts, the
answers given reflected the misinformation, not the true answers (Burgess et al.,
1998). Kezuka (1997), using mechanical methods of determining physical force
exerted by facilitators, demonstrated that facilitators did indeed use tiny muscle
movements of their hand, and sometimes facial and other cues, to influence the
position of the communicators hand. Thus, the facilitators were the real
communicators.
What makes facilitated communication fascinating and important for behavioral
science is the fact that, in all likelihood, the great majority of facilitators were not
frauds or charlatans but sincere believers (Spitz, 1997). Needless to say, the exposure
of the true nature of facilitated communication was a great disappointment to those
who believed in it. However, the actualthat is, nonconsciousmechanism of its
effect is no less astonishing than the original claims. How could the facilitators be
expressing their own thoughts without being aware of it?
Actually, this is not the first phenomenon involving nonconscious movement
that has been documented. In the 19th century, great interest was paid to pendu-
lums purported to swing in response to mysterious forces. Forked sticks called
dowsing rods are said to suddenly point downward when the person using them
walks over a place where there is underground water (Vogt & Hyman, 2000).
And furniture has suddenly moved or turned, supposedly under the influence of
spirits (Spitz, 1997). In all of these cases, there were no supernatural forces at
work, only strong expectancies that produced motor responses that were out of
awareness. According to Wegner, Fuller, and Sparrow (2003), all of these phenom-
ena depend on authorship confusion,whereby the true source of the action is
attributed to a wrong person or object. Read a fascinating example of this in
Historical Hoofnote.
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 251
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HISTORICAL HOOFNOTE
Herr von Osten purchased a horse in
Berlin in 1900. When von Osten began
training his horse, Hans, to count by tap-
ping his front hoof, he had no idea that
Hans would soon become one of the
most celebrated horses in history. Hans
was a rapid learner and soon progressed
from counting to adding, multiplying,
dividing, subtracting, and eventually to
solving problems involving factors and frac-
tions. Even more startling, when von Osten
exhibited Hans to public audiences, he
counted the size of the crowd and the num-
ber of people wearing eyeglasses. Respond-
ing only with taps, Hans could tell time, use
a calendar, recall musical pitch, and perform numerous other seemingly fantastic feats. After von Osten taught
Hans an alphabet that could be coded into hoofbeats, the horse could answer virtually any questionoral or
written. It seemed that Hans, a common horse, had complete comprehension of the German language, the ability
to produce the equivalent of words and numerals, and an intelligence beyond that of many human beings.
Even without promotion by the mass media, the word spread quickly, and Hans became known
throughout the world. He was soon dubbed Clever Hans. Because of the profound implications for several
scientific fields, and because some skeptics thought a gimmick was involved, an investigating commission
was established to decide whether deceit tainted Hanss performances. Professors of psychology and physi-
ology, the director of the Berlin Zoological Garden, a director of a circus, veterinarians, and cavalry officers
were appointed to this commission. An experiment with Hans, in which von Osten was absent, demon-
strated no change in the apparent intelligence of the horse. This was sufficient proof for the commission to
announce that no trickery was involved.
But the appointment of a second commission was the beginning of the end for Clever Hans. Von Osten
was asked to whisper a number in the horses left ear while another experimenter whispered a number in
the horses right ear. Hans was told to add the two numbersan answer none of the onlookers, von
Osten, or the experimenter knew. Hans failed. And with further tests, he continued to fail. The experi-
menter, Pfungst (1911/1965), had discovered that Hans could answer a question only if someone in his
visual field knew the answer and was attentive to the situation.
When Hans was given a question, onlookers who knew the answer assumed an expectant posture,
increased their body tension, and bent their heads slightly forward. When Hans reached the correct number
of taps, the onlookers would relax and make a slight upward movement of their heads, which was Hanss
signal to stop tapping. Evidence suggested that Hans could detect head movements as slight as one-fifth of
a millimeter. Subsequent experiments found that Hans also would cease tapping when a knowledgeable
onlooker raised his or her eyebrows or even showed a dilation of the nostrils.
Hanss cleverness was not in his ability to verbalize or understand verbal commands but in his ability to
notice and respond to almost imperceptible and unconscious nonverbal movements by those surrounding
him (Spitz, 1997). These unwitting accomplices, like the facilitated communicators described in this chapter,
were completely unaware that their movements were producing the horses responses. Indeed, like the peo-
ple with impairments in the facilitated communication paradigm, Clever Hans could not answer questions
correctly unless the questioner or some other onlooker knew the correct response.
UPPA/PhotoShot, Inc.
252 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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SELF-TOUCHING
People also communicate nonverbally through self-touching that includes nail
chewing, skin picking, twirling the hair, hand wringing, lip biting, holding, strok-
ing, and self-grooming activities. It is not clear what psychological functions are
served by these actions, though researchers generally agree that they are more an
out-of-awareness expression of personal needs than reflective of intentional
communication (i.e., more signsthan signals). However, intentional communi-
cation sometimes involves self-touching, as when a sexual come-on includes
self-stroking. Various kinds of self-touching, or self-touching used in different
circumstances, may serve different functions. Figure 8-4 shows several kinds of
self-touching. Morris (1971) offered a list of different kinds of self-touching:
1. Shielding actions. These behaviors usually involve reducing input or output:
for example, covering the mouth or ears with the hands.
2. Cleaning actions. Sometimes we bring our hands up to our head to scratch,
rub, pick, or wipefor literal cleaning. But sometimes similar self-touching is
used for attending to our appearance: for example, hair grooming, clothes
straightening, and other types of preening. Observations and subsequent inter-
views with people in public restrooms found women engaging in more of this
behavior than men. People in the process of building an intimate relationship
did more preening than those whose intimate relationship had been established
for some time (Daly, Hogg, Sacks, Smith, & Zimring, 1983).
3. Specialized signals. These gestures are used to communicate specific messages,
such as cupping the ear with the hand to signal an inability to hear, or holding
a hand under the chin to signal I have had it up to here.
4. Self-intimacies. Self-intimacies, according to Morris, are comforting actions
that generally represent nonconsciously reproduced acts of being touched by
someone else. They may involve holding ones own hands, arm folding, leg
crossing, masturbation, and so on. Some actions, he maintains, are more likely
to be performed by women than men, such as the head-lowered-on-to-the-
shoulder posture and leg hugging. Thus, self-touching can be a substitute for
comfort that might otherwise be provided by others.
Some self-touching behaviors are what Ekman and Friesen (1972) called adap-
tors or self-manipulators. As the term implies, they are behavioral adaptations in
response to certain situations. There is consensus that adaptors are generally associ-
ated with negative feelings. Some useful classifications exist for different types of
adaptors, which include both the probable referent for the behaviorself, other,
or objectand the type of behavior, such as scratching or rubbing.
Research on psychiatric patients has found that self-adaptors increase as a per-
sons psychological discomfort, anxiety, or depression gets worse (Ekman &
Friesen, 1972; Freedman, 1972; Freedman, Blass, Rifkin, & Quitkin, 1973;
Freedman & Hoffman, 1967; Waxer, 1977). If, however, the anxiety level is too
high, a person may freeze, engaging in little movement at all. The finding that self-
adaptors also were associated with guilt feelings in the patients studied illuminates
one aspect of the deception research we review in Chapter 12. Ekman and Friesen
(1972) also discovered picking and scratching self-adaptors to be related to a
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 253
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FIGURE 8-4
Self-touching.
Courtesy of Judith A. Hall
Tom Morrison/Getty Images
Courtesy of Judith A. Hall
DEX IMAGE/Getty Images
254 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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persons hostility and suspiciousness. Theoretically, this picking and scratching is a
manifestation of aggression against oneself or aggression felt for another person
that is directed inward. Other speculations and hypotheses about self-adaptors
include the possibility that rubbing is used to give self-assurance, that covering the
eyes is associated with shame or guilt, that self-grooming shows concern for ones
self-presentation, or that self-touching is an outlet for nervous energy.
A number of studies have indicated that self-touching is associated with situa-
tional anxiety or stress. This is the case in baboons as well as in people (Castles,
Whitens, & Aureli, 1999). Ekman and Friesen (1974a) asked people to watch one
of two films, one highly stressful and the other quite pleasant. Viewers were then
instructed to describe the film as pleasant to an interviewer. Thus, those watching
the stressful film had to deceive, which in itself can be considered stressful. Partici-
pants in the second group engaged in more self-touch than those simply describing
the pleasant film as pleasant. In a study of physicianpatient communication,
patients were more likely to touch their bodies when talking about anxiety-
producing hidden agendas than when talking about the primary complaint (Shreve,
Harrigan, Kues, & Kagas, 1988).
Interracial interaction is another context in which stress can produce self-
touching. Olson and Fazio (2007) coded any kind of self-manipulationsuch as
scratching the head, playing with the hair, or kneading the handsby white partici-
pants when interacting with black and white confederates. The participantsgeneral
racial attitudes were measured as well as their attitudes about the particular black
confederate they had interacted with. When these two kinds of attitudes were
discordantsuch as when their general attitude was negative, but their attitude
toward the particular black confederate was positiveparticipants engaged in signifi-
cantly higher levels of self-touching. This study well illustrates the complexity of
interpreting the meaning of nonverbal communication. Though some authors have
emphasized prejudiced individualscommunication of hostile attitudes through non-
verbal behaviors, this study reminds us that nonverbal behavior can also be a sign
of discomfort or internal conflict, and not due to interpersonal negativity per se.
Self-touching is also greater in people who are chronically anxious, a variable
known as trait anxiety, such as among people who are shy but also have a desire to
be sociable (Cheek & Buss, 1981). When trait anxiety is measured indirectly, using a
reaction-time task, it predicts self-touching and other behavioral signs of anxiety bet-
ter than an explicit self-report does. Perhaps on an explicit self-report, highly anxious
people deny their anxiety or are not fully aware of it (Egloff & Schmukle, 2002). An
interesting question is whether the self-touching associated with anxiety is simply an
indicator that anxiety is occurring, or whether such touching actually relieves stress.
Another source of body-focused movements is cognitive, or information-
processing, demand. When engaged in a monologue, people touched themselves
more than when simply sitting still. Heaven and McBrayer (2000) showed that
people touched themselves more when answering questions about a passage they
had heard than when simply listening to it. When asked to read the names of col-
ors that were printed in contradictory colors, such as the word red printed in blue,
people touched themselves more than if they were given color-consistent color
names to read (Kenner, 1993). These results suggest that mental concentration and
stress can lead to more self-touching.
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 255
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Though not much direct evidence exists for how aware people are of their self-
touching, it is generally assumed that, compared to some other nonverbal beha-
viors, self-touching is low in awareness. Hall, Murphy, and Schmid Mast (2007)
found that, indeed, when asked how much of several nonverbal behaviors they
engaged in during a videotaped interaction, people were least accurate in remem-
bering how much they had engaged in self-touching, though they did remember
their self-touching at levels better than chance.
The concept of adaptors can be extended to behaviors other than self-touching.
Such behaviors are theorized to have been learned in conjunction with our early
experiences with interpersonal relations: giving and taking from another, attacking
or protecting, establishing closeness or withdrawing, and so forth. Ekman believes
that restless movements of the hands and feet, which have typically been consid-
ered indicators of anxiety, may be residues of adaptors necessary for flight from an
interaction.
Object-adaptors involve the manipulation of objects for no obvious functional
purpose. One example is rolling a paper clip around with your fingers. Object-
adaptor behaviors also may be derived from the performance of some instrumental
task, such as writing with a pencil or smoking. Some people engage in these man-
nerisms more than others. Although people are typically unaware of performing
self-adaptor behaviors, they are probably more aware of object-adaptors. These
movements are often learned later in life, and fewer social taboos seem to be asso-
ciated with them. As with self-adaptors, object-adaptors are likely to be associated
with anxiety, stress, or cognitive load.
Because there are social constraints on displaying some self-adaptors, they are
more often seen when a person is alone. At any rate, in public we would not expect
to see the full act. As an example, alone you might pick your nose without inhibi-
tion, but when around other people, you may just touch your nose or rub it
casually.
Individual and group differences in self-touching have been found. In a study
of children from four countries, those from England and Australia engaged in sig-
nificantly less self-touching during experimental tasks than did Italian children and
French-speaking children in Belgium. Possibly, touching of other people may paral-
lel these self-touching differences across these cultures. Also in those samples, sig-
nificant individual variation was revealed, meaning that some children were
consistently more likely to touch themselves during a variety of experimental tasks
(Kenner, 1993). Another group difference relates to gender: Women touch them-
selves in interpersonal interaction more than men do (Hall, 1984). It is not clear
to what extent this may reflect greater social anxiety or arousal on the part of
females, a heightened self-consciousness about appearance, or the simple fact that
womens clothes and hair more often demand readjustment.
SUMMARY
Our first information about ourselves, others,
and our environment probably comes from
touching. The act of touching or being touched
can have a powerful impact on our response to a
situation, even if that touch was unintentional. In
some cases, touching is the most effective method
for communicating; in others, it can elicit nega-
tive or hostile reactions. The meanings we attach
256 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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to touching behavior vary according to what
body part is touched, how long the touch lasts,
the strength of the touch, the method of the
touch, and the frequency of the touch. Touch
also means different things in different environ-
mentsinstitutions, airports, and so onand
varies with communicatorsage, gender, culture,
personality, and relationship. Indications are that
children in the United States touch more than
adults do, but there seems to be a decreasing
amount of touch from kindergarten through
junior high school. Investigators agree that early
experiences with touch are crucial for later
adjustment.
The common types of interpersonal touching
and self-touching may communicate a variety of
messages that include influence, positive affect,
negative affect, play, interpersonal responsive-
ness, interaction management, and task require-
ments. Touch can have powerful symbolism, and
its possible healing and therapeutic power has
received much attention throughout history and
in modern research laboratories. Touching can
also intensify whatever emotional experience is
occurring. Touch can be a powerful source of
behavioral influence, and both the toucher and
the recipient of touch may be unaware of its
occurrence and effects.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Think of a person you know personally who
does not like touching or being touched.
What analysis can you offer for this persons
characteristic? How much do you think it
reflects personal history and personality ver-
sus social and cultural norms?
2. What do you think about the ethics of using
touch to achieve compliance or a favor from
someone? Is it different from using persua-
sive language or using other forms of nonver-
bal communication, such as smiling or
generally being nice?
3. Most studies find that touch is a rather infre-
quent event. Do you think this is correct?
Discuss exceptions to this generalization.
Why do you think touch might seem to be
not very common?
4. Sometimes people are eager to touch others
because they gain something of psychological
value by doing so, yet people often feel vio-
lated by being touched. Discuss these differ-
ent perspectives on the phenomenon of
touch.
5. It has been suggested that sometimes a
womans friendly intention touch is misper-
ceived by a man as being a sexual invitation.
Have you ever had such an experience? Do
you think this is a true phenomenon?
6. For a day, pay close attention to your own
and othersuse of self-touching. Try to ana-
lyze the circumstances under which people
engage in this behavior. Note what brings it
on, what situations it occurs in, and what
kind of people do it more or do it less. What
kind of psychological function do you think
self-touching serves?
CHAPTER 8THE EFFECTS OF TOUCH ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 257
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THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN
COMMUNICATION
[CHAPTER9]
The face is rich in communicative potential. It is a primary site for communication
of emotional states, it reflects interpersonal attitudes, it provides nonverbal feed-
back on the comments of others, and some scholars say it is the primary source of
communicative information next to human speech. For these reasons, and because
of the faces visibility, we pay a great deal of attention to the messages we receive
from the faces of others. Frequently, we rely heavily on facial cues when making
important interpersonal judgments. This begins when, as infants, we take special
interest in the huge face peering over our crib and tending to our needs. Most of
the research on facial expressions and various components of the face has focused
on the display and interpretation of emotional signals. Although this is the major
focus of this chapter, we also emphasize that the face may be the basis for judging
another persons personality, and it canand doesprovide information on much
more than our emotional state.
THE FACE AND PERSONALITY JUDGMENTS
The human face and its features come in many sizes and shapes. As reviewed in
Chapter 6, people have long believed that certain personality or character traits
can be judged from the shape or features of a persons face. For example, high
foreheads are believed to reveal intelligence, thin lips conscientiousness, and thick
lips sexiness (Secord, Dukes, & Bevan, 1959). Facial primacy, or the tendency to
Your face, my thane, is a book where men may read strange matters.
Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I
258
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give more weight to the face than to other communication channels, may stem in
part from these facial stereotypes.
But facial primacy probably stems even more from the dynamic nature of the
faceits ability to make practically an infinite number of expressions. Many differ-
ent muscles are used routinely in making facial expressions (Rinn, 1984). The look
of a persons face is due in part to the genetic blueprint that endows it with certain
physical features, in part to transient moods that stimulate the muscles to move in
distinctive ways, and in part to the lingering imprint of chronically held expressions
that seem to set in and become virtually permanent over the years. The dynamic
face is the subject of the present chapter.
People make personality attributions based on facial expressions (Knutson,
1996). For example, a person who smiles at us warmly upon introduction is imme-
diately perceived to be nice. Likewise, we think a sour-faced old man is mean and
selfish. Little research exists on the validity of such stereotypes, though. It is cer-
tainly possible that the person with the warm smile is a cutthroat manipulator and
the mean-looking man is a tenderhearted soul. One study supporting the validity of
facial expression stereotypes found that college students believe facially expressive
individuals are more confident and likable, and indeed, in a sample of college
women, those with more expressive faces were more extraverted, according to sev-
eral self-report scales (Riggio & Friedman, 1986). Thus, there can be a kernel of
truth to some facial-expression-based stereotypes.
Another study lending support to the validity of facial-expression-based stereo-
types was done by Harker and Keltner (2001). The more womens faces showed
positive emotional expression in their college yearbook pictures, the more observers
of the pictures thought the women would be rewarding to interact with. And
indeed, the women who had more positive expressions had more affiliative person-
alities and reported experiencing more positive affect, not only at age 21, but also
decades later, and they were more likely to be married by age 27 than women
who had less positive yearbook photos.
Research does not always support the validity of facial-expression-based
stereotypes, however. Gifford (1994) studied self-reported personality, others
impressions of personality, and various nonverbal cues emitted during interaction.
Although smiling was positively related to observersimpressions of extraversion,
agreeableness and ingenuousness, smiling was not related to the targetsown per-
sonality ratings for any of these traits.
THE FACE AND INTERACTION MANAGEMENT
Our faces also are used to facilitate and inhibit responses in daily interaction. Parts
of the face are used to:
1. Open and close channels of communication
2. Complement or qualify verbal and/or nonverbal responses
3. Replace speech
Behaviors can, of course, serve several functions simultaneously. For example, a
yawn may replace the spoken message Im boredand also may serve to shut
down other channels of communication, such as eye contact.
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 259
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CHANNEL CONTROL
When we want a speaking turn, we sometimes open our mouths in readiness to
talk, which is often accompanied by an inspiration of breath. Others notice such
signals and decide whether to ignore or respect them. As noted in Chapter 2, the
eyebrow flash found in greeting rituals, which is frequently accompanied by a
smile, is another facial cue that signals a desire to interact. Interestingly, smiles
also are found in situations in which there is a desire to close the channels of com-
munication; for example, a smile of appeasement as a person backs away from
someone threatening physical harm. Smiling and winking, at least in popular
stereotypes, also are used to flirt with othersan invitation that not only opens
the channels of communication but also suggests the type of interaction desired.
Although we usually think of smiles as showing emotion or attitudes, they
actually have many complex functions. Brunner (1979) showed that smiles serve
as listener responsesor back channelsin conversation in that they signal
attentiveness and involvement just as head nods, uh-huh,and yeahdo. These
smiles do not indicate joy or happiness in the sender but are meant to facilitate and
encourage the other persons speech. These cues achieve channel control by keeping
channels open.
COMPLEMENTING OR QUALIFYING OTHER BEHAVIOR
In normal conversational give and take, there are instances when we wish to under-
line, magnify, minimize, or contradict messages. The speaker or listener may give
these signals. A sad verbal message may acquire added emphasis with eyebrow
movements that normally accompany the expression of sadness. A smile may tem-
per a message that could otherwise be interpreted as negative. The hand emblem
for A-OK may be accompanied by a wink, leaving little doubt that approval is
being communicated. Thus, facial cues can combine with other cues to avoid con-
fusion and magnify or qualify our messages.
REPLACING SPOKEN MESSAGES
Ekman and Friesen (1975) identified what they call facial emblems. Like hand
emblems, these displays have a fairly consistent verbal translation. Facial emblems
are different from the actual emotional expressions in that the sender is trying to
talk about an emotion while indicating he or she is not actually feeling it. These
facial emblems usually occur in contexts not likely to trigger the actual emotion;
they are usually held for a longer or shorter time than the actual expression and
are usually performed by using only part of the face. When you drop your jaw
and hold your mouth open without displaying other features of the surprise expres-
sion, you may be saying that the other persons comment is surprising or that you
were dumbfounded by what was said. Widened eyes without other features of the
surprise and fear expressions may serve the same purpose as a verbal wow!If
you want to comment nonverbally on your disgust for a situation, a nose wrinkle
or raising one side of your upper lip should get your message across. Sometimes
one or both eyebrows communicate Im puzzledor I doubt that.Other facial
260 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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messages with common verbal translations that are not associated with expressions
of emotion include the You know what I meanwink and sticking your tongue
out to convey insult or disapproval (Smith, Chase, & Lieblich, 1974).
Facial movements play an important role in managing conversation (Bavelas &
Chovil, 1997; Chovil, 1991/1992). According to Chovil, the most frequent function
is syntactic display. Syntactic facial displays act as markers, functioning as visible
punctuation for words and clauses; they are directed toward the organizational
structure of the conversation to mark beginnings, endings, restarts, continuations,
and emphasis. Raising and lowering the eyebrows is a central activity in syntactic
displays. Facial actions made by a speaker that are directly connected with the con-
tent of what is being said are called semantic displays. These displays may be
redundant with the verbal behavior or they may involve additional commentary
on the spoken words, such as personal reactions to what is being said. The face
also provides listener responses, as mentioned earlier. These are primarily facial dis-
plays that facilitate the flow of interaction but also include those that give personal
reactions and seemingly empathic displays in the form of behavioral mimicry.
The preceding discussion provides only a cursory overview of how the face is
used in managing interpersonal interactions. We did not deal with concomitant
gaze behavior and other subtle movements such as head tilts. We talked about
smiles as if there were only one variety. Brannigan and Humphries (1972) have
identified nine smiles, representing various types and degrees of intensity, many of
which seem to occur in distinctly separate situations. Ekman and Friesen (1978),
using an anatomically based coding system we will describe shortly, have found
over 100 distinctly different human smiles. Most recently, researchers have distin-
guished between smiles that are more and less likely to be indicative of true positive
affect, as discussed later in this chapter.
THE FACE AND EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTION
The intellectual roots of our modern interest in facial expression stem from the
mid-19th century. Charles DarwinsThe Expression of the Emotions in Man and
Animals (1872), although not as famous as his other writings on natural selection,
was a major work of theory and empirical observation that largely focused on the
face (Ekman & Oster, 1982). To Darwin, the study of emotional expression was
closely tied to his case for evolution, for he held that the capacity to communicate
through nonverbal signals had evolved just as the brain and skeleton had. The face
becomes increasingly mobile as one moves up the phylogenetic ladder. In many ani-
mals, the face is a fixed mask with little to no capacity for mobility, but in primates
we see a great variety of expressions (Redican, 1982). Because it would support his
theory of evolution, Darwin considered it extremely important to document simi-
larities in the nature of emotional expression across species and across human cul-
tures. Several strands of contemporary facial research can be traced to Darwins
insights, including conducting judgment studies to find out what meanings obser-
vers ascribe to different expressions, undertaking cross-cultural studies, studying
the movements of particular facial muscles, and testing the hypothesis that making
facial expressions can intensify the expressors experience of emotion. We review
each of these topics here.
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 261
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DISPLAY RULES AND FACIAL EMOTION EXPRESSION
Consider the following situations:
1. A student who feels sure he is doing Cwork is told by his instructor that he
is doing Awork. His immediate reaction is total surprise, probably followed
by glee. But how does he react? His face shows mild surprise, and he com-
ments that he thought he was doing pretty good work in the course.
2. A poker player draws her fourth ace in a game with no wild cards. Her face
would lead the other players to believe she was unmoved.
3. A woman receives a holiday present that she likes, but it is nothing spectacu-
lar. Her facial expression and comments, however, lead the giver to believe it
was the only thing she ever wanted in her entire life.
4. The husband of a fledgling executive is forced to attend the bosss party and is
told explicitly that his behavior will have a profound impact on the promotion
of his spouse. He is nervous and also annoyed. But, according to those who
describe the party later, he was the life of the partyhappy, carefree, and
relaxed.
These four examples illustrate certain display rules we tend to follow (Ekman &
Friesen, 1969b). The student illustrated a deintensified affectstrong surprise was
made to look like mild surprise. The poker player was trying to neutralize her
feelings to make it appear there was no emotion at all. The person reacting to the
holiday present tried to make mild happiness appear to be strong happinessan
overintensification of the affect. The husband of the fledgling executive was trying
to mask feelings of tension or annoyance with happiness and confidence. These
display rules are learned, but we do not always use them at a conscious level of
awareness. We learn culturally prescribed norms for when and how much emotion
to display. We also develop personal display rules based on our needs or perhaps
the demands of our occupation (e.g., as a politician or salesperson). We learn that
some affect displays are appropriate in some places but not others, for some status
and role positions but not others, and for one sex but not the other.
The existence of display rules helps explain why some anthropologists have
believed that emotions are expressed in sharply different ways from culture to cul-
ture. Although the same potential for showing a particular facial expression of
emotion may exist in all humans, such as with anger, cultural upbringing influences
when and how it is shown (Matsumoto, Yoo, & Chung, 2010). Another example
concerns grief. In one society, people may weep and moan at a funeral, whereas in
another they may celebrate with feast and dance. However, the underlying emo-
tion, grief, is experienced and likely expressed similarly in private. The difference
is that in public, the cultural normsdisplay rulesregulate behavior. In the first
society, the rule says Show how sad you are,but in the second, it says Affirm
social bondsor Show hope for the future.
The topic of deception is taken up in a later chapter, but let us say here that
the face, along with other nonverbal cues, can certainly be used to deceive others
about our feelings and thoughts. Deception may be driven by situational factors,
such as when a customer does not want a salesperson to know how much he or
she really wants a costly product (Puccinelli, Motyka, & Grewal, 2010). The line
262 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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between deception and display rules can be fuzzy, but in general it can be said
that display rules, because they are shared, reflect a collective understanding of
socially appropriate behavior, whereas deception is generally considered to be
done for a persons own self-advantage and to the disadvantage of others. There-
fore, basing our nonverbal behavior on display rules tends to be looked on with
approval, as an indication of social skill or maturity, whereas deception is gener-
ally disapproved of.
Display rules do not always have to be socially defined and shared. Such differ-
ences may stem from a persons level of expressiveness and be related to neurologic
differences (Kunz et al., 2011). People also can have their own idiosyncratic
rulesfor expression. Ekman and Friesen (1975) developed a classification system
for various styles of facial expressions. The styles are heavily based on personal dis-
play rules and represent extremes. A style may be displayed in a less extreme fash-
ion in some situations or at certain times in the persons life, but some people
manifest a given style with consistency. These styles include the following:
1. The withholder. The face inhibits expressions of actual feeling states. There is
little facial movement.
2. The revealer. This style is the opposite of the withholder. The face of the
person who lets it all hang out leaves little doubt how the person
feelscontinually.
3. The unwitting expressor. This pattern usually pertains to a limited number of
expressions that a person thought were masked, hence this person might ask,
incredulously, How did you know I was angry?
4. The blanked expressor. In this style, the person is convinced an emotion is
being portrayed, but others see only a blank face.
5. The substitute expressor. Here, the facial expression shows an emotion other
than the one the person thinks is being displayed.
6. The frozen-affect expressor. This style manifests at least part of an emotional
display at all times. Some people are born with a facial configuration that in a
relaxed, neutral state shows the down-turned mouth associated with sadness;
others habitually experience an emotion so much that traces of the emotional
display are permanently etched into the face. (This is an idea that Darwin
proposed.)
Self-presentational desires can also produce distinctive styles of facial expres-
sion. Former President Clinton often used a smile we call his brave smile (Figure 9-1).
It is not a pure expression of happiness, as our discussion of blends and feltsmiles
later in this chapter makes clear. Rather, we think Clinton was trying to convey a
complex mixture of pride, determination, concern, and modesty with the combination
of the paradoxically down-turned mouth, the set chin, and the smile wrinkles
around the eyes.
The preceding discussion of display rules and styles of emotional facial expres-
sion demonstrates that we have considerable control over our facial expressions,
and this control is manifested in a variety of ways. Although we can successfully
present facial messages that we do not feel, sometimes we lie imperfectly by enact-
ing an expression at the wrong time; by enacting it too often or for too long, as
when we insincerely display a smile too long; or by using various facial muscles
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 263
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inappropriately. These factors may help us separate genuine emotions from pseu-
doexpressions of emotion on the face.
People undeniably are aware of the communicative potential of the face and
tend to monitor it carefully by inhibiting or exhibiting when desired. With the con-
stant feedback we receive about our facial expressions, we become rather proficient
at controlling them. We are also more accurate in reporting our facial expressions
than other head or body movements (Hall, Murphy, & Schmid Mast, 2007).
The way we experience emotions can be quite complex. Sometimes we move
rapidly from one emotion to another. For example, people reporting the feeling of
jealousy indicate that the jealous flash may move from shock and numbness to
desolate pain to rage and anger to moral outrage in a very brief time(Ellis &
Weinstein, 1986). Sometimes we are not sure what emotion we are feeling, and at
other times, we seem to feel many emotions at once. Simultaneously felt emotions
may even be contradictory, as when one is both attracted and repulsed by a grisly
accident scene. When we experience more than one emotion, we sometimes try to
control one while we deal with the other. These are only some of the many ways
we experience emotions (Ellis, 1991).
Because emotional experience is complex, understanding emotion through
facial expression is correspondingly difficult. People do not always portray pure or
single emotional states, in which all the parts of the face show a single emotion.
Instead, the face conveys multiple emotions. These are called affect blends and
may appear on the face in numerous ways. For example, one emotion is suggested
FIGURE 9-1
Former President Clintonsbravesmile.
Reuters/CORBIS
264 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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by one facial area, and another is suggested by another area, as when brows are
raised as in surprise and lips are pressed as in anger. Or two different emotions
are shown in one part of the face, as when one brow is raised as in surprise, and
the other is lowered as in anger. Such displays may merely confuse a viewer, or
they may convey a new meaning that is different from either of the elements. The
brows just described might, for example, convey skepticism.
Figure 9-2 shows two examples of facial blends. One photograph shows a
blend of happiness, evidenced by a smiling movement in the mouth area, and also
surprise, evidenced by the raised eyebrows and forehead, wide eyes, and a slight
dropping of the jaw. Such an expression could occur if you thought you were
going to get an Fon an exam, but you received an Ainstead. In the other
photograph, the eyebrow, forehead, and eye area show anger while the mouth
shows sadness. This combination might occur if your instructor told you that your
grade on an exam you considered unfair was an F.You feel sad about the low
grade and angry at the instructor.
A final note about the complexity of faces concerns what Haggard and Isaacs
(1966) called micromomentary facial expressions. While searching for indications
of nonverbal communication between therapist and patient, they ran films at slow
motion and noticed that the expression on the patients face would sometimes
change dramaticallyfrom a smile to a grimace to a smile, for examplewithin a
few frames of the film. Further analysis revealed that when they ran the films at
4 frames per second, instead of the normal 24 frames per second, 2.5 times as
many changes of expression could be discerned. One hypothesis is that these micro-
momentary expressions reveal actual emotional states but are condensed in time
FIGURE 9-2
Facial blends.
Paul Ekman, Ph.D.
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 265
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because of repressive processes. They are often incompatible with both the
apparent expression and the patients words. One patient, saying nice things about
a friend, had a seemingly pleasant facial expression; however, slow-motion film
showed a wave of anger cross her face. Although agreeing that micromomentary
expressions may show conflict, repression, or efforts to conceal an emotion,
Ekman, Friesen, and Ellsworth (1982) actually found them to be very rare events
based on extensive analysis of facial movements. However, this does not mean they
do not have an impact, possibly a subliminal one, when they occur.
THE FACIAL EMOTION CONTROVERSY
One tradition, originating with Darwin and associated today with the work of Paul
Ekman and Carroll Izard, emphasizes the close connection between facial displays
of emotion and concurrently felt emotions with a corresponding emphasis on
emotion-expressive display linkages as being biologically grounded. This approach
has fueled ambitious programs of cross-cultural research on the recognition of
facial expression, as discussed in Chapter 2 and also later in this chapter. A sim-
plistic version of such a theoretical position would hold that, at least for certain
basic emotions, the emotion always produces a certain expression, which could be
a single muscle movement or a complex pattern of movements, and conversely that
this expression always signifies the occurrence of its associated emotion. According
to such a view, facial expressions are always a readoutan honest, unpremedi-
tated, uncontrolled indicationof internal emotional states.
A bit of reflection on everyday experience should make the reader skeptical of
such a view, however, and it is unlikely that any theorist holds such an extreme
position. As we discussed in the previous section, people can feign emotions by
willfully putting on different expressions. They also are sensitive to situations in
which it would be inappropriate to show certain expressions; for example, a win-
ner who shows too much happiness could be seen as gloating. A rising tide of
research now shows that a purely spontaneous nonverbal readout of emotional
states may be a rarer event than some think (Bonanno & Keltner, 2004; Russell,
Bachorowski, & Fernández-Dols, 2003). The term loosely coupled is used to
describe emotion and expression systems that coincide only occasionally or under
certain circumstances.
Many studies support this argument that expressions are not a perfect window
into emotional experience. Researchers have sought to create or observe situations
in which the experience of an emotion can be confirmed, so that they can see
what expressions are produced. People bowling with friends have been observed in
the United States and Spain. After a good roll, and at other moments when they
reported feeling happy, bowlers smiled much more when facing their friends than
when facing the pins. Similarly, soccer fans watching a match on television smiled
much more during happy moments when orienting directly to their friends than
during happy moments when they were not interacting with them directly. During
their noninteractive happy moments, they showed expressions indicative of several
different emotions not shown in the interactive happy moments (Fernández-Dols &
Ruiz-Belda, 1997; Kraut & Johnston, 1979; Ruiz-Belda, Fernández-Dols, Carrera, &
266 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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Barchard, 2003). Thus, a person can be very happy yet not show it in a prototypi-
cally happyfacial expression.
Further evidence that facial expression and experienced emotion are only
loosely coupled, and that the nature of the social situation is a strong determinant
of what is displayed on the face, is that facial motor mimicrydisplaying what
another person is feeling, such as wincing when a friend stubs his toedecreases
when no one is there to see the facial display (Bavelas, Black, Lemery, & Mullett,
1986; Chovil, 1991). Furthermore, college students watching emotionally provok-
ing slides were more facially expressive when they watched with a friend as
opposed to a watching with a stranger (Wagner & Smith, 1991), and college stu-
dents recounting positive and negative experiences showed facial expressions that
inconsistently matched their reported affect (Lee & Wagner, 2002). At the Olympic
Games, gold medal winners were filmed at three moments: while standing behind
the podium away from public view, while standing on the podium interacting with
authorities and the public, and while standing on the podium facing the flagpoles
and listening to their national anthem (Fernández-Dols & Ruiz-Belda, 1995).
Although their feelings of happiness probably did not vary across these three
closely spaced periods, the winners smiled the most during the public-interactive
period, suggesting again that a facial expression is not due solely to the emotion
being experienced.
Audience effects such as these may even occur when a person is alone and
behaving spontaneously, for even then a person may respond to fantasies or
memories of social interaction. In support of this notion, Fridlund (1991) found
that college students watching a pleasantfilmsmiledmorewhenwatchingwitha
friend than when watching alone. But students who watched the film in a differ-
ent room from their friend and were aware that the friend was watching the
same film also smiled more than students who watched the film alone. Thus,
even the imagined presence or experience of others may serve to stimulate or
facilitate facial displays.
The impact of the audience on facial displays of emotion is also influenced
by the disposition of the person experiencing the emotion. People vary with
respect to how negatively oriented they are to pain, from low to high catastro-
phizing. Vervoort and colleagues (2011) had children undergo the cold pressor
pain task twice (i.e., dipping a hand in a container of very cold water for a min-
ute, which is moderately painful), once when the children thought they were
alone and once when they thought a parent was watching them. There was a
3-minute parentchild interaction in between the two tasks. The researchers
noted that higher levels of facial expressions of pain were observed when parents
did not talk about the childspain,butonlyamonghigh-catastrophizingchildren;for
low-catastrophizing children, pain expressions were not related to parental talk
about pain. This suggests that high-catastrophizing childrens pain expressions were
influenced by how a parent was responding to their experience of pain.
Fridlunds (1994, 1997) behavioral ecology theory of facial expression asserts
that facial expressions are virtually never simply emotional and are, instead, always
enacted for social purposes. In Fridlunds view, spontaneous expression of emotion
would not have been a selected trait during evolution because showing all ones
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 267
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feelings would too often have not served the expressors interest, and it could
possibly have even served the interests of rivals by depriving the expressor of the
ability to deceive. Fridlunds argument that facial expressions are meant to commu-
nicate rather than to simply reveal is consistent with many examples of functional
expressive behavior in the animal kingdom, as well as with everyday observation
of human interaction.
However, most researchers appear not to accept the extreme position that
facial expressions are mainly messages and are hardly ever purely spontaneous
readouts of ones emotional life. There are certainly many instances when our
faces show feelings without our being aware of itsometimes feelings that we
would very much have wanted to conceal. The fact that audience presence effects
can sometimes work in reverse, with people showing more facial expressions when
alone than with others present, suggests that people do indeed make spontaneous
emotional expressions (Buck, 1984, 1991; Wagner & Lee, 1999). Facial expressions
are not always only for social communication purposes.
Thus far, the approach described for testing whether expressions match inner
feelings involves comparing expressions in different social circumstances. Another
way of asking this question is to compare peoples expressions to what they say
about their emotional states. When viewers were asked about their emotions during
neutral or scary film excerpts, almost no matching occurred (Fernández-Dols &
Ruiz-Belda, 1997)only 2 of 35 viewers who reported a basic emotion showed
the expression that theoretically should have been produced by that emotion,
and 3 showed expressions that suggested entirely different emotions from those
reported.
Similarly, Carroll and Russell (1997) first obtained good agreement from
viewers on which emotions were being expressed in over 100 scenes by actors in
Hollywood movies, and then they conducted a detailed analysis of the actors
faces. Only for happy episodes did the expected happypattern of facial move-
ments occur. For other emotions, although particular expected movementssuch
as lowered brows in angry episodesoccurred more often than chance might
dictate, little evidence supported the idea that whole prototypical patterns of
expression actually took place. Considering that actors are likely to make more
stereotyped expressions than people in real life, these results give a strong indication
that the face and emotion do not necessarily have a close correspondence.
MEASURING THE FACE
ANATOMICAL DESCRIPTION For many years, descriptions of facial movements tended
to be impressionistic or idiosyncratic (Ekman, 1982; Rinn, 1984). This changed
dramatically with the work of Carroll Izard (1979) and of Paul Ekman and
Wallace Friesen (1978), who independently developed precise systems for describ-
ing facial action based on muscle movements. Izards work has focused on infant
expressions. The EkmanFriesen Facial Action Coding System (FACS) has been
applied more generally and appears to be the most widely adopted. In this context,
the term widely is relative because learning a system comprehensive enough to
describe nearly any combination of muscle movements requires many hours of
training and practice and is extremely time consuming to apply.
268 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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Ekman and Friesen developed the FACS by painstakingly learning how
to move all their facial muscles and by studying anatomy texts. They studied
the faces of other people who had learned how to control specific muscles and
considered what movements an observer could reliably distinguishimportant
because observers would be the data-gatherers. These movements were called
action units. Sometimes an action unit involves more than one muscle, if those
muscles always work in tandem or if an observer cannot see the difference.
Altogether, the FACS can identify over 40 distinct action units in the face.
For illustration, Figure 9-3 presents the action units identified by Ekman (1979)
for the brow and forehead. Altogether, seven different muscles can influence this
region of the face.
The FACS allows emotion researchers to describe objectively what movements
have occurred on the face, and further work with this system allows a face to be
categorized as showing a given emotion based on extensive data relating those
movements to other criteria, mainly observersjudgments of facial expressions.
Through years of collecting such judgments, Ekman and his colleagues developed
a catalogue of prototypical movements associated with seven different judged
emotions. For example, Ekman and Friesen (1978) determined that in the brow/
forehead region (shown in Figure 9-3), action units 1 or 1 þ4occurinsadness,along
with associated movements across the rest of the face. In surprise, we see 1 þ2; in
fear, 1 þ2þ4; in anger, 4; and so forth.
FIGURE 9-3
Action units for the brow/forehead.
Source: From P. Ekman, About Brows: Emotional and Conversational Signalsin von Cranach, et al., eds.
Human Ethology, p. 174. Reprinted by permission of Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 269
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Recall that we discussed the role of the face in interaction management. Ekman
tells us how the brow/forehead area contributes to these conversational signals as well:
Accent a word, 1 þ2 (Actor Woody Allen uses 1 þ4 for this, according to
Ekman.)
Underline a phrase, 1 þ2or4
Punctuate, like a visual comma,1þ2 or 4
Question mark, 1 þ2or4
Word search, 4
Listener response (back channel), 1 þ2
Indicate lack of understanding, 4
Although the FACS method is laborious to apply, the results can be very inter-
esting and lessons derived from it can be possibly quite useful in daily life. For
example, facial muscle movements can reveal our implicit attitudes, our perception
of different tastes, as well as the occurrence of sexual excitement, pain, and even
different pain sources in us, such as pain from immersion of the hand in cold
water, from electric shock, and from surgery or other physical trauma (Fernández-
Dols, Carrera, & Crivelli, 2011; LeResche, 1982; Lynch, 2010; Patrick, Craig, &
Prkachin, 1986; Wendin, Allesen-Holm, & Bredie, 2011). The facial signs of pain,
measured in both infants and adults, include the following: a tightening of the mus-
cles surrounding the eyes, which narrows the eyes and raises the cheeks; the corru-
gator and other forehead muscles lower the eyebrows and wrinkle the bridge of the
nose; and the levator muscles raise the upper lip and may produce wrinkles at the
side of the nose (Prkachin & Craig, 1995). The faces of terminal cancer patients
differ according to the stage of disease progression. In the early stages, signs of
fear are more prominent (whole eye tension combined with tension in the
lower eyelid), but these give way to signs of sadness (in the brow/forehead region)
in the late stage (Antonoff & Spilka, 19841985).
Some of the most subtle and fascinating work studying facial muscle move-
ments concerns different kinds of smiles, referred to as Duchenne smiles and non-
Duchenne smiles after the 19th-century neurologist who first described them. The
muscle called the zygomatic major, which stretches out the lips when we smile, is
the common denominator. Ekman has shown that the frequency, duration, and
intensity of action by the zygomatic major differentiated among facial displays
made by people watching different kinds of films, and it also correlated with how
much happiness people said they felt while viewing them (Ekman, Friesen, &
Ancoli, 1980). However, other muscles besides the zygomatic major are crucial to
understanding what the smile really means. Darwin proposed that in a feltor
genuinely happy (Duchenne) smile, the orbicularis oculi musclethe muscle that
gives you crows-feet at the corner of your eyesis involved, but that it is not
involved in a phony or mechanical (non-Duchenne) smile. Figure 9-4 shows the
difference between feltand unfeltsmiles.
In another study, student nurses were shown either a pleasant or a stressful
film, and those shown the stressful film were asked to act as though the film were
pleasant. Thus, those who were watching the stressful film had to lie about their
experience. The smiles of those who saw the pleasant film were found to be felt,
happy smiles with no muscular activity associated with any of the negative
270 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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emotions. Those trying to look pleasant while watching the stressful film showed
more maskingsmiles, involving the zygomatic major but not the orbicularis
oculi, and they also showed more movements of the 10 or so muscles associated
with fear, disgust, contempt, sadness, or anger (Ekman, Friesen, & OSullivan,
1988). Can you tell which face in Figure 9-5 displays the felt smile? (See the end
of the chapter for the answer.)
FIGURE 9-4
Neutral face, unfeltsmile, and feltsmile.
Photos courtesy of Veikko SurakkaProfessor at University of Tampere, Finland.
Photos courtesy of Veikko SurakkaProfessor at University of Tampere, Finland.
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 271
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In another demonstration of the value of such precise muscle coding, Matsumoto
and Willingham (2006) analyzed the expressions of athletes in the 2004 Olympic
judo competition. Compared to silver medal winners, both gold and bronze medal
winners showed many more Duchenne (enjoyment) smiles, especially the open-
mouthed variety, when receiving their medals and when on the podium. Although
we might have expected the silver medalists to be happier than bronze winners,
apparently coming in second felt like a defeat, whereas coming in third felt like a
victory over the many other athletes who did not win any medal at all. The distinc-
tion between enjoyment and more purely social smiles has been supported in
numerous studies, even among infants as young as 10 months of age (Ekman,
Davidson, & Friesen, 1990; Ekman & Friesen, 1982; Fox & Davidson, 1988).
Aside from the involvement of the eye muscle, Duchenne smiles are of less variable
duration and have a smoother quality than unfelt smiles. Moreover, the two
FIGURE 9-5
Which is the felt,happy smile?
a
c
b
c
Paul Ekman, Ph.D.
272 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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kinds of smiles can be distinguished from each other by naive viewers, even chil-
dren as young as 9 years old (Frank, Ekman, & Friesen, 1993; Gosselin, Perron,
Legault, & Campanella, 2002; Scherer & Ceschi, 2000), although not always with
high levels of accuracy (Hess & Kleck, 1990).
What impact might these expressions have on others? The mind-set of the
viewer matters. Bernstein, Sacco, Brown, and Claypool (2010) showed that indivi-
duals who wrote about experiences related to social exclusion expressed a greater
desire (relative to control subjects) to work with people displaying Duchenne as
opposed to non-Duchenne smiles. This suggests that, in situations in which we are
feeling excluded, our interest in cues that encourage us to approach others, such as
those associated with a smile of enjoyment, might be temporarily heightened.
The distinction between enjoyment and social smiles, although very important,
is still a probabilistic one. This means that in any particular instance, there may be
uncertainty about the smiles true meaning. Although it may be unlikely that a
smile involving only the mouth is a true expression of pleasure or happiness, it is
possible for a smile involving the eye muscles to be feigned by someone who has
good control over the facial muscles. The fact that an enjoyment smile can be
posed, as in Figure 9-4, underscores this point. Research shows that a sizable
minority of people can deliberately produce a Duchenne smile (e.g., Krumhuber &
Manstead, 2009).
AUTOMATED FACIAL MEASUREMENT Because anatomical description of the face, such as
that used in the FACS, is so time consuming to learn and employ, there is strong
interest in developing computer programs that can recognize emotions and
describe and produce facial movement. This is a major challenge because of the
many possible muscle movements and the existence of great differences between
individual faces in shape and musculature. The challenge is especially great for sti-
muli that are not standardized in terms of head position and other movement
parameters. Early systems were not very practical, because they required attaching
small dots to the face to serve as landmarks for the computerized analysis (Kaiser
& Wehrle, 1992). Automated systems that can analyze movement under more nat-
ural circumstances and in real time are currently being developed and have very
promising validity as tested against trained human coders for recognizing discrete
emotions (Cohn & Ekman, 2005). Recently, new software (FACSGen 2.0) has
been developed that may enable researchers to reliably create various facial expres-
sions of emotion by manipulating action units on humanlike faces (Krumhuber,
Tamarit, Roesch, & Scherer, 2012). Such a tool has practical applications as a
diagnostic and training tool for those who struggle with decoding facial
expressions.
Another approach that eliminates human judgment is based on the fact that
different emotions produce distinctive facial movements, even when the movements
are too slight to be seen with the naked eye. Electrodes attached to the face mea-
sure electromyographic (EMG) responses, that is, electrical activity indicative of
incipient or very slight muscle movements that are not visible to the naked eye.
Most consistent are results showing that the zygomatic muscle, which expands the
mouth, responds under happy conditions, and the corrugator muscle between the
brows responds under sad, angry, and fearful conditions (Matsumoto, Keltner,
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 273
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Shiota, OSullivan, & Frank, 2008). Studies that use EMG recordings have shown
that facial muscles respond in predictable ways to simply seeing othersemotional
expressions (Blairy, Herrera, & Hess, 1999; Dimberg, 1982; Lundqvist, 1995).
Thus, the face responds with corrugator activity to seeing angry expressions and
with zygomatic major activity to seeing happy expressions. The face also responds
in mimicking fashion to facial expressions of sadness and disgust. Nonemotion
states (e.g., confusion) as well as attitudes (e.g., positive affect in response to
images of slim people) are also detectable using EMG responses (Durso, Geldbach, &
Corballis, 2012).
MEASUREMENT BY SIMPLE OBSERVATION Although much is to be gained from the FACSs
fine-grained anatomical analysis and EMG technology, researchers most often employ
less highly trained human observers for their facial measurement and judgment tasks.
Observers are frequently asked to count the frequency of facial expressions, rate their
intensity, or time their duration, either with or without a period of training (Kring &
Sloan, 2007). As long as adequate interobserver agreement is obtained, these simpler
approaches can have high validity. For example, Sato and Yoshikawa (2007) studied
unconscious mimicry of facial expressions by unobtrusively videotaping participants
while they watched videos of faces that were posing either angry or happy expres-
sions. In this study, untrained observers were just as good as trained FACS coders at
distinguishing which kind of video the participants had watched.
MEASURING EMOTION RECOGNITION
Emotions can be identified at levels much higher than chance from posed facial
expressions, as Ekman and colleagues (1987) have shown, and also from spontane-
ously expressed facial displays (Tcherkassof, Bollon, Dubois, Pansu, & Adam,
2007), though accuracy is lower for spontaneous expressions than for posed ones.
But before going further, measurement issues must be discussed.
FIGURE 9-6
How should these facial expressions be read?
Courtesy of Judith A. Hall
274 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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THE RESPONSE FORMAT Examine the three faces shown in Figure 9-6, then consider
the following methods of measuring your accuracy.
1. In the space provided, write in the emotion being expressed in each of the
faces you observed.
A. B. C.
2. From the choices given, select the one emotion that best describes Face A, Face B,
and Face C.
Face A Face B Face C
Rage Happiness Sadness
Anger Joy Despair
Wrath Delight Solemnity
Indignation Amusement Despondency
Resentment Pleasure Melancholy
3. From the following list, select the term that best describes Face A, Face B, and
Face C: happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger.
This exercise illustrates one of the many problems involved in testing the accuracy
of judgments about facial expressions or other nonverbal cues. In this case, judgment
accuracy would depend a great deal on which set of instructions the judge received.
The first testing condition, involving a free response from the judge, will produce a
wide range of responses, and researchers will be faced with the problem of deciding
whether the judgeslabelcorrespondswiththeirowncorrectlabel for the emotion.
The labels used by the experimenters or expressors and those used by the judges may
be different, but both may respond the same way to the actual emotion in real life or
may be thinking of the same emotion. To illustrate, some individuals may label an
angry face with the word disgusted, which, for them, means the person is thoroughly
fed up with something, whereas for others that word means the person finds some-
thing, such as a food item or an image, to be unpleasant or offensive.
In the second testing condition, the discrimination task is too difficult because
the emotions listed in each category are too much alike. We can predict low accu-
racy for judges given these instructions because different perceivers will make
slightly different construals. In contrast, the last set of instructions is the opposite
of the second setthe discrimination task may be too easy. Because the emotion
categories are discrete, we can predict high accuracy for the third condition.
Accuracy is also influenced by biases in judgment patterns. Consider a facial
judgment task with equal numbers of sad, happy, and angry faces. If a judge
guesses happyall the time, to state the extreme case, he or she would score as
very accurate on happy faces, and we might conclude that such a judge is an excel-
lent judge of happiness. But obviously the judge has no differential accuracy,
because she or he gave only one answer to all the items. For the same reason, the
low accuracy obtained by such a judge on the other emotions is less an index of
actual accuracy than of a rating bias. Researchers who employ multiple-choice
tests have fortunately developed ways of scoring that take rating bias into account
(Wagner, 1993). And of course we must keep in mind what level of accuracy
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 275
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would be expected on the basis of guessing alone: with four choices, this level would
be 25 percent; with three, 33 percent; and so on. Therefore, any given level of accu-
racy cannot be evaluated in absolute terms but rather must be appraised in terms of
how much higher or lower it is than the guessing level.
Aside from these methodological factors, other factors also influence the levels
of accuracy that will be obtained by a researcher. The duration of exposure to the
facial expressions will likely have an impact, though accuracy can be obtained with
surprisingly short exposures (see Ambady, Bernieri, & Richeson, 2000; Matsumoto
et al., 2000). Also, characteristics of the test-taker can interact with the nature of
the to-be-decoded facial expression of emotion. Children, for instance, show a pos-
itivity bias on emotion judgment tasks because happy faces are more salient to
them than angry faces, and depressed individuals show a response bias for expres-
sions of disgust (Surguladze et al., 2010; Todd, Evans, Morris, & Lewis, 2011).
Lastly, men appear more likely than women to show a response bias for labeling
faces as not depicting any emotion at all (Sasson et al., 2010).
CREATING THE FACIAL STIMULUS Researchers use various methods to elicit the emo-
tional expressions that observers are asked to identify. Some simply describe a
situation and tell the actor to behave as if he or she were in that situation, others
give a list of emotions and tell the actor to portray them, and others gather
examples of facial expressions of people in real situations that are not posed or
acted. One early study (Dunlap, 1927) went to an almost comic extreme: A
camera was set up in a laboratory, ready to catch the subjectsexpressionsat
the proper moment. To elicit an expression of pain, the experimenter bent the
subjects finger backward forcibly; to produce a startled look, the experimenter
fired a pistol behind the subject at an unexpected moment; apprehension was
elicited by telling the subject the pistol would be fired again, close to his ear, on
the count of threeat the count of two, the photo was taken. Amusement was
captured when the experimenter told the subject some jokes; disgust resulted
from the subjects smelling a test tube containing tissues of a dead rat; and
finallyunbelievablyto elicit an expression of grief, a subject was hypnotized
and was told several members of his family had been killed in a car wreck.
Unfortunately,says the experimenter, the camera could not catch intense
grief because the subject bowed his head and cried,so he had to settle for an
expression of mild grief to be used in the study.
The idea of presenting subjects with a controlled stimulus and then observing
their reactions, although carried to an extreme in Dunlaps study, still underlies
much research on spontaneous expressions. Expressors are shown slides or films
that differ in their contentfunny, disgusting, sexy, heartwarming, and so forth
while a video camera unobtrusively records their facial reactions. Judges later
observe the expressorsfaces and try to guess which slide or film each subject had
been viewing (Buck, 1979; Zuckerman, Hall, DeFrank, & Rosenthal, 1976). This
method can capture completely unpremeditated expressions. However, because
expressors are not in a truly communicative situation, their behavior may be no
more generalizable to real social interaction than are expressorsattempts to pose
various emotions on the command of the experimenter. Another method, asking
subjects to reexperience an emotional event and then talk about it, has been used
276 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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sometimes as a more natural alternative that blends some elements of deliberate
and spontaneous communication (Halberstadt, 1986).
CONTEXT OR NOT?Though researchers might present faces of strangers out of con-
text, contextual factors obviously influence accuracy. Prior exposure to a face is
one such factor. If you are familiar with the face, and have seen it express other
emotions, you are more likely to correctly identify another emotion that you have
not seen on it before.
Observers can label facial expressions of emotion without any knowledge of
the context in which they occur, but co-occurring perceptions of the social context,
the environment, and other people will surely affect their judgments. In fact, several
studies make it clear that additional knowledge concerning the context in which a
particular facial expression occurs will affect how people judge an emotion being
expressed. The context can be visual, as when observers are shown the situation,
including people who may be in it. Or, the context can be narrative, as when
observers are told a background story and then shown a facial expression of a per-
son supposedly in the story.
Although a number of investigators have pursued the question of whether con-
text or expression dominates perceptions, the issue is far from resolved and replete
with methodological issues (Fernández-Dols & Carroll, 1997; Matsumoto &
Hwang, 2010). One consideration is cultural background; Kuwabara and Son
(2011) showed that Japanese childrens judgments concerning the proper emotional
expression of a face were more sensitive to changes in the accompanying context
than was the case with their counterparts from the United States.
Perhaps the study cited most often regarding the influence of context in face
judging is the classic one by Munn (1940). Facial expressions taken from popular
magazines were shown with and without background context. The background
information was very helpful in accurately identifying these facial expressions, as
were verbal cues describing the situation.
Another classic demonstration of context effects is Clines (1956) study of line
drawings to test the effect of seeing another face as part of the total context. He
found that the expression on one face influenced interpretation of the other face.
When the smiling face was paired with a glum face, the smiling face was seen as
that of a vicious, gloating, taunting bully. When the smiling face was paired with
a frowning face, the smiling face seemed peaceful, friendly, and happy. The influ-
ence of other faces has been demonstrated more recently by Neta, Davis, and
Whalen (2011), who showed that surprised facial expressions are seen as more
positively valenced when they appear in a sequence dominated by happy expres-
sions as opposed to angry ones.
Thus, the context in which a facial expression is embedded can influence our
interpretation of the expression. We may be consciously aware of and deliberating
using contextual information at times, whereas at other times this influence may
be automatic in that it occurs outside of our conscious awareness and control
(Aviezer, Bentin, Dudarev, & Hassin, 2011).
Although the question is often asked in terms of which matters more, expres-
sion or context (see the review by Fernández-Dols & Carroll, 1997), this either-or
approach is too simplistic. Often a judgment depends not on which source of
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 277
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information wins out in observersjudgments, but rather on whether the two
sources of information can be meaningfully integrated. Sometimes this is done by
reinterpreting the information from one source, for example, by deciding that a
sadstory context might actually produce angry feelings, too. Other times, a true
integration is made, as when a facial expression of fearplus a context of
angerproduces the overall interpretation of pain(Carroll & Russell, 1996).
EMOTIONS INFERRED FROM THE FACE
Many factors influence how emotions are inferred from the face, but the compel-
ling fact remains that they can be inferred and often with extremely high levels of
accuracy. Some emotions are more likely to be confused, but six basic emotions
happiness, anger, sadness, disgust, surprise, and fearare judged with very high
accuracy among observers in many studies. In one large database, the ordering of
accuracy from highest to lowest followed the list just given, but the emotions dif-
fered in how accuracy was influenced by how long the expression was shown
(Calvo & Lundqvist, 2008). Happiness was equally easy to judge across exposures
ranging from 25 to 500 millisecondsthat is, up to a half a secondbut all of the
other emotions showed increases in accuracy as the exposures got longer.
Figures 9-7 to 9-12 show these six basic emotions with a description of their
characteristic facial actions, each of which can also be described in terms of which
action units are involved. These expressions are recognized at high levels not only
in the United States but also around the globe (see Chapters 2 and 3; Ekman,
Sorenson, & Friesen, 1969; Izard, 1971). More recently, Biehl and colleagues
(1997) demonstrated that seven emotions shown on the faces of both Japanese
and Caucasian individuals were judged with high levels of agreement by viewers in
Hungary, Japan, Poland and Sumatra, and by Caucasians and recently immigrated
Vietnamese in the United States. We can argue that in todaysworldofglobalmedia
exposure and cross-cultural contact, such a result is not at all surprising. Ekman and
his colleagues set about to find out how remote tribal people in New Guinea, who
had not been exposed to Western facial expression norms, would respond. Even in
New Guinea, photos of U.S. citizensfaces showing these six basic emotionswere
judged correctly for the most part. Moreover, some New Guineans were photo-
graphed while showing how they would react in different situations, such as
you feel sad because your child died,and U.S. respondents later guessed with
great accuracy which scenario was being communicated (Ekman & Friesen, 1971).
Most cross-cultural research has dealt with depictions of the face showing very
pure configurations for the major emotions. However, as noted earlier, facial
expressions can be complex blends, with different muscles simultaneously showing
elements of different emotions. The question of whether cross-cultural universality
also applies to secondary, more subtle expressions led Ekman and a team of collea-
gues to introduce a new methodology into the cross-cultural research. These
researchers obtained ratings of faces on a variety of emotions from subjects in 10
places around the world, including Estonia, Sumatra, Scotland, Japan, Italy, and
Hong Kong. There was dramatic agreement across cultures not only on the
primary emotion being shown by the faces but also on the secondary emotion
(Ekman et al., 1987).
278 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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FIGURE 9-7
Surprise: The brows are raised so they are curved and high. The skin below the brow is
stretched, and horizontal wrinkles go across the forehead. The eyelids are opened: The upper lid
is raised, and the lower lid is drawn down; the white of the eyethe sclerashows above the iris
and often below as well. The jaw drops open so the lips and teeth are parted, but there is no
tension or stretching of the mouth.
FIGURE 9-8
Fear: The brows are raised and drawn together. The wrinkles in the forehead are in the center,
not across the entire forehead. The upper eyelid is raised, exposing the sclera, and the lower eye-
lid is tensed and drawn up. The mouth is open, and the lips are either tensed slightly and drawn
back or stretched and drawn back.
Paul Ekman, Ph.D.
Paul Ekman, Ph.D.
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 279
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deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
FIGURE 9-9
Disgust: The upper lip is raised. The lower lip is also raised and pushed up to the upper lip, or is
lowered and slightly protruding. The nose is wrinkled, and the cheeks are raised. Lines show
below the lower lid, and the lid is pushed up but not tense. The brow is lowered, lowering the
upper lid.
FIGURE 9-10
Anger: The brows are lowered and drawn together, and vertical lines appear between them. The
lower lids are tensed and may or may not be raised. The upper lids are tensed and may or may
not be lowered by the action of the brow. The eyes have a hard stare and may have a bulging
appearance. The lips are in either of two basic positions: pressed firmly together, with the corners
straight or down, or open and tensed in a squarish shape, as if shouting. The nostrils may be
dilated, but this is not essential to the anger facial expression and may also occur in sadness.
There is ambiguity unless anger is registered in all three facial areas.
Paul Ekman, Ph.D. Paul Ekman, Ph.D.
280 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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FIGURE 9-12
Sadness: The inner corners of the eyebrows are drawn up. The skin below the eyebrows is trian-
gulated, with the inner corner up. The upper eyelid inner corners are raised. The corners of the
lips are down, or the lips are trembling.
FIGURE 9-11
Happiness: The corners of the lips are drawn back and up. The mouth may or may not be
parted, with teeth exposed or not. A wrinkle, the nasolabial fold, runs down from the nose to the
outer edge beyond the lip corners. The cheeks are raised. The lower eyelids show wrinkles below
them and may be raised but not tense. Crows-feet wrinkles go outward from the outer corners
of the eyes (covered by hair in these photographs).
Paul Ekman, Ph.D. Paul Ekman, Ph.D.
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 281
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deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Although accurate recognition of certain emotions is generally well above
chance everywhere it has been tested, variability still exists between individuals
and from place to place. Variation within a culture and between cultures is still
being investigated. Young and Hugenberg (2010) observed that, for people in the
same culture, accuracy is better when they are judging facial expressions from
members of their in-group (namely, people who they think have the same personal-
ity type as themselves) as opposed to members from an out-group (namely, people
who they think have a different personality type).
There is some evidence that people from different cultures, such as East Asian
and Western Caucasian, have different expectations about the regions of the face
associated with the expression of basic emotions (Jack, Caldara, & Schyns, 2012).
In addition, Russell (1994) found that facial expressions, mainly of Westerners
faces, were more accurately recognized by other Western groups than by
non-Western groups. An in-group advantage has been documented, showing that
people have an advantage when judging cues expressed by members of their own
cultural, national, or ethnic group (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002, 2003).
One reason for such an advantage is the existence of emotion dialects,or cul-
turally learned ways of expressing different emotional messages through nonverbal
cues. Such dialects, when shared between senders and receivers, promote accurate
judgments. Elfenbein and Ambady (2003) measured accuracy in judging photographs
of mainland Chinese people in China and Caucasian Americans expressing different
emotions through the face. The groups whose accuracy was tested were mainland
Chinese people in China, mainland Chinese people in the United States, Chinese
Americansthat is, U.S. citizens of Chinese extractionand non-Asian U.S. citizens.
These four groupsaccuracy conformed exactly to the authors’“dialectpredictions:
The more the group was familiar with mainland Chinese expressions, the better they
were on Chinese compared to Caucasian expressions, and the more the group was
familiar with American expressions, the better they were on Caucasian compared to
Chinese expressions. In addition, an analysis of how long the Chinese-American fam-
ilies had been in the United States showed that the longer the families had been in the
country, the better they were at judging Caucasian compared to Chinese faces. These
data lend strong support to the emotion dialects concept.
Although researchers do not agree on how many basic emotions there are,
most research describing facial movements associated with emotion has concen-
trated on the six shown in Figures 9-7 to 9-12. Recently, attention has turned to
other expressions, including shame, embarrassment, compassion, contempt, and
pride. Whether these represent basic emotions signaled by universally recognizable
facial displays is debatable. Widen, Christy, Hewett, and Russell (2011), for exam-
ple, found that agreement on the emotions being communicated by facial displays
of shame, embarrassment, compassion, and contempt dropped when participants
had to freely choose an emotion label for each of the faces. Nonetheless, these and
other expressions are believed to be signaled by specific cues:
1. Contempt is thought to be signaled by a slight tightening and raising of the
corner of the lip on one side (Ekman et al., 1987).
2. Threat is conveyed by several facial signals, as shown in Figure 9-13. The faces
are ordered so that decreasing ratings of perceived threat go from left to right
282 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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FIGURE 9-13
Facial stimuli in which four cues to threat are manipulated.
Source: From Tipples, J. (2007). Wide eyes and an open mouth enhance facial threat, Cognition and Emotion, 21,535557,
©2007PsychologyPress.Reprintedbypermissionofthepublisher (Taylor & Francis Group, http://www.informaworld.com).
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 283
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deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
in each row, with the highest ratings occurring for the face on the upper left
and the lowest ratings occurring for the face on the lower right (Tipples,
2007). V-shaped brows, wide eyes, open mouth, and down-turned mouth all
produced higher threat ratings.
3. Facial signs for anxiety have been shown to include increased blinking and
more facial movements associated with fear, such as a horizontal mouth
stretch and more facial movements overall (Harrigan & OConnell, 1996).
4. Pride in its prototypical form includes a small smile in conjunction with other
cues: head tilted back slightly, expanded posture, and hands on the hips (Tracy
& Robins, 2004, 2007).
5. Embarrassment has been shown to be signaled by looking down, shifting the
eyes, turning the head away, touching the face, and engaging in controlled
smiles,which are smiles a person tries to counter with other facial move-
ments (Keltner, 1995). Keltner has also studied the temporal ordering and
relative duration of the components of facial embarrassment (Figure 9-14).
Lastly, it is important to remember that facial expressions that signal particular
emotional reactions (how you are feeling) might also signal important social information
FIGURE 9-14
Prototypical embarrassment response. The mean duration of each action is equal to the interval,
beginning with the leftmost edge of the photograph and ending with the end of the arrow.
Paul Ekman, Ph.D.
284 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
(what you think about a situation). Chapman, Kim, Susskinf, and Anderson (2009)
found that the same muscles used to signal bad taste (gustatory disgust) were activated
in response to unfair treatment (moral disgust), and Cannon, Schnall, and White (2011)
noted that displays of facial disgust in response to violations of fairness were related
to subsequent moral judgments. Thus, a facial expression of disgust might signal
that a situation, such as unfair treatment, is morally disgusting to you.
PHYSIOLOGY AND THE FACE
INTERNALIZERS AND EXTERNALIZERS
You must have at least one friend with a face that remains as still as a rock, no
matter how much excitement swirls around him or her. You also have friends
with faces that seem as sensitive as a butterflys wings to every shift of the emo-
tional winds. What you may not know is that these differences, aside from being
quite real and enduring, also are associated with differences in physiological func-
tioning. Internalizers, those who show little facial expression, experience high phys-
iological reactivity on measures such as heart rate and electrodermal responding;
externalizers, the expressive ones, show the opposite pattern (Buck, Savin, Miller, &
Caul, 1972; Lanzetta & Kleck, 1970; Notarius & Levenson, 1979). Most theorizing
about this relationship has pointed to learned factors; for example, the notion that
society encourages people to suppress their overt emotional reactions, and that
individuals who do so must experience their emotions or arousal in some other
way, perhaps through internal activation of the nervous system. The metaphor of
discharge can be applied: The emotion is released, either externally or internally
(Notarius & Levenson, 1979). However, research on newborns finds a similar nega-
tive relationship between expressiveness and physiological response, suggesting that
inherited temperamental factors may also be at work (Field, 1982).
FACIAL EXPRESSION AND HEALTH
Given these differences, it is intriguing to consider a possible connection between
expressiveness and physical health. Could restraining the outward expression
of emotion be damaging to health? Friedman and his colleagues (Friedman &
Booth-Kewley, 1987; Friedman, Hall, & Harris, 1985) pursued this idea and
found that, as predicted, a repressedstyle of expression was related to indica-
tions of coronary artery disease and even to the actual occurrence of a heart attack.
King and Emmons (1990) found some support for the hypothesis that ambivalence
over emotional expression would be associated with poorer health. Malatesta,
Jonas, and Izard (1987) found that women who showed less expression on their
face when talking about an angry experience had more arthritis symptoms, and
women who showed less facial expression during a sad account had more skin pro-
blems. Promising evidence for a relation of emotional expression/suppression to
health comes from research on alexithymia, a term used to describe patients who
have a pronounced inability to describe their own emotions. These patients are
deficient in facial expressiveness and also seem to suffer from a disproportionate
number of psychosomatic ailments (Buck, 1993).
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 285
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FACIAL FEEDBACK
Adding to the complexity and fascination regarding the relation between the face
and physiology is the facial feedback hypothesis put forth by Darwin, who believed
that if an emotion is freely expressed, it will be intensified. The facial feedback
hypothesis states that expressions on the face can intensify emotional experience
via direct connections between facial muscles and emotion centers in the brain,
even without any conscious awareness of what the face is showing.
EMBODIED COGNITION
The mind and body used to be
thought of as two separate enti-
ties. Later, it was understood
that the human brain is respon-
sible for what we think of as
our mind, and that our mind
controls our bodies. We can
make the decision to smile, for
example, when we want to let
another person know that we
like him or her.
However, can our body
influence our mind? Yes,
according to those who sub-
scribe to the notion of embo-
died cognition (Lakoff &
Johnson, 1999). One example
is how motor processes, such as those involved in smiling, can influence our thoughts about emotion states.
Consider a situation in which you see a Duchenne smile on another persons face. If you so happen to
mimic that expression, you are activating motor processes in your face that are linked to your cognitive-
based experience and understanding of happiness. This, in turn, might help you recognize happiness in the
other person. These ideas are currently being explored by those who are interested in applying the notion of
embodied cognition to the study of nonverbal behavior (Neidenthal, Mermillod, Maringer, & Hess, 2010).
The evidence for this perspective on emotion recognition is mixed. Facial mimicry does provide informa-
tion that aids the process of judging the meaning of a smile (Maringer, Krumhuber, Fischer, & Niedenthal,
2011). But what if your ability to mimic anothers facial expression was impaired (e.g., from Botox injec-
tions, which can paralyze muscles used in some facial expressions)? Would emotion recognition be impaired
as well? Research shows that we are slower at reading emotion-evoking sentences when we cannot facially
express the emotion that the sentences were designed to arouse in us (Havas, Gienberg, Gutowski, Lucarelli,
& Davidson, 2010). However, other research shows that feedback from facial expressions is not necessary
for the experience of emotion states or for the recognition of othersemotion states (Bogart & Matsumoto,
2010; Davis, Senghas, Brandt, & Ochsner, 2010). It could be that facial mimicry is helpfulbut not always
requiredin identifying emotion states. When we cannot or do not mimic the other persons facial expres-
sion, we may still be accurate by calling upon our beliefs about how a person should be feeling in a partic-
ular situation, or by drawing on our knowledge of what movements are associated with what emotions.
sippakorn yamkasikorn/Photos.com
286 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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Is the facial feedback hypothesis valid? The idea that emotions can be regulated
via facial behaviorthat we can create authentic emotional experience from inau-
thentic outward expressionshas important ramifications for child rearing,
psychotherapy, and many other domains (Izard, 1990). The facial feedback hypoth-
esis has been debated at length, in part because early studies had methodological
problems (Matsumoto, 1987). Such an experiment asks subjects to pose their faces
in various ways and then measures their emotional state through self-report (Laird,
1974; Tourangeau & Ellsworth, 1979). The flaw in such a study is that expressors
may realize their posed expression is meant to look like fear or happiness. If this
happens, it is no surprise that they obediently report feeling those emotions.
Fortunately, studies exist that do not share this problem. In a particularly well-
designed study, a group of investigators disguised the purpose of the facial posing
by telling participants they were helping develop ways for persons with disabilities
to hold a writing implement; it could be held between the teeth, which naturally
expands the lips, or it could be held by the lips, which contracts them. Figure 9-15
illustrates these mouth positions. Unknown to the participants, these two manipu-
lations differ in whether the smiling muscles around the mouth are activated.
Those holding the pen between their teeth, which activated the smiling muscles,
rated cartoons as funnier than the other participants did (Strack, Martin, &
Stepper, 1988). Thus, the position of the facial muscles can indeed feed backto
influence the expressors emotion state. Subsequent research using this same
pencil-in-the-teeth paradigm showed that inducing expressors to activate their eye-
corner muscles as well as their mouth-widening muscles, which produce Duchenne
smiles, resulted in higher levels of enjoyment when viewing positive video clips than
occurred when expressors made non-Duchenne smiles (Soussignan, 2002). This
makes sense when you consider that the Duchenne smile is said to reflect more gen-
uine positive emotion than the non-Duchenne smile.
FIGURE 9-15
Illustration of the technique used to contract the different facial muscles: left, lips condition;
right, teeth condition.
Source: Copyright © 2009 by the American Psychological Association. Figure 1, page 771, from Inhibiting and facili-
tating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Strack, Fritz; Martin,
Leonard L.; Stepper, Sabine. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol 54(5), May 1988, 768777.
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 287
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Ekman, Levenson, and Friesen (1983), in a facial feedback experiment,
also demonstrated that moving particular facial muscles on command, as well as
relivingpast emotional experiences, produces specific patterns of reaction in the
autonomie nervous system. Heart rate and finger temperature increased more in
anger than in happiness, and anger and fear were similar in terms of heart rate
increases but differed in finger temperature. Perhaps these results translate into the
familiar feelings of being flushed or hot when angry and of having cold hands
when afraid.
Strack and Neumann (2000) extended the facial feedback phenomenon beyond
emotional responses to the kinds of judgments we make about others. Under the
guise of studying how working on a computer produces tension, participants were
asked to furrow their brows or not while doing a computer judgment task. On the
task, participants made ratings of how famous various celebrities and noncelebri-
ties were. Those who maintained the furrowed brow rated the individuals as less
famous than those in the control group, presumably because the furrowed brow
unconsciously put them in a skeptical frame of mind.
Though most feedback studies have involved the face, other body parts can
also produce feedback effects. In one study, researchers manipulated upright versus
slumped postures using differently designed chairs and showed that if participants
were upright rather than slumped when hearing that they had performed well on
an earlier task, they experienced more pride in their performance (Stepper &
Strack, 1993).
Not much is known about the exact mechanisms that produce psychological
changes, such as emotions, following face and body movement. Although well-
designed studies can rule out a cognitive explanationthat is, that people simply
report the feelings they know their movements suggestthe nature of the physio-
logical mechanism is still an open question. Although most investigators assume
feedback occurs through the nervous system, a novel theory called the vascular the-
ory of emotional efference holds that certain facial movements and breathing pat-
terns change the temperature of the blood flowing into the brain, which then
influences affective state, suggesting that perhaps cooler blood produces more posi-
tive affect (Mclntosh, Zajonc, Vig, & Emerick, 1997; Zajonc, 1985).
Thus, it appears that our own expressions, whether deliberately put on or
spontaneously mimicked in response to othersexpressions, can produce corre-
sponding emotions or can intensify or deintensify experiences already in progress.
The process of emotional contagion(Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1994) may
contribute to our ability to experience empathy and understand othersemotional
states. Indeed, when Surakka and Hietanen (1998) showed the feltand unfelt
smiles shown in Figure 9-4 to viewers, they found that EMG recordings of both eye
and cheek muscles were stronger for those who saw the felt smiles and that more
pleasure was subsequently experienced by those who saw those smiles.
Though mimicry of othersfacialexpressionscanoccur entirely without aware-
ness, it is not immune to social influences. In a good demonstration of this, facial
EMG responsesspecifically, the zygomatic major responding to a happy facial
expression and the corrugator responding to a sad facial expressionoccurred only
when the participants had acquired positive associations to the target person by
being told she had traits such as niceness and likeability. When the target person had
288 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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negative traits, such as being deceitfuland aggressive,participantsfaces showed
no mimicking activity (Likowski, Mühlberger, Seibt, Pauli, & Weyers, 2008).
Researchers studying the face and physiology also have discovered that posed
and spontaneous facial expressions are controlled by different pathways within the
brain. This has been demonstrated by certain forms of brain injury that result in a
person losing the ability to produce facial expressions deliberately but not losing
the capacity to laugh, cry, frown, and so on when genuinely experiencing an emo-
tion; the reverse form of disability also exists (Rinn, 1984). When brain damage
occurs, facial expressiveness is especially impaired when the damage is to the right
hemisphere of the brain, which is considered the more nonverbal hemisphere (Buck
& Duffy, 1980). Researchers have found that the left side of a persons face tends
to be more expressive (Borod, Koff, Yecker, Santschi, & Schmidt, 1998; Nicholls,
Wolfgang, Clode, & Lindell, 2002; Skinner & Mullen, 1991) because the left half
of the face is controlled by the right hemisphere. However, consistent with the
notion of separate neural pathways, this asymmetry is present only for posed
expressions; spontaneous, more genuine ones tend to be symmetrical (Ekman,
Hager, & Friesen, 1981; Skinner & Mullen, 1991). Perhaps now you will think
differently about your friend with the crooked smile.
Thus far we have mostly examined the face in terms of what its movements
mean. But researchers also have asked broader questions about real-world corre-
lates of facial expression.
THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
Facial expressions, both intended and spontaneous, exert many influences on other
people. In this section, we present only a sampling of this research. The strong
impact of facial expressions takes on special significance because people have a
great deal of control over their faces. Most discussions of the face center on emo-
tions and how the face reveals what emotions are being felt. But several times we
have mentioned the distinction between posed and spontaneous expressions. By its
very nature, a posed expression means that people need not actually feel what they
are showing. The face becomes a tool of self-presentation, something used to create
a desirable image in the eyes of others, and of social influence, something capable
of producing desirable impressions in someone else. Ironically, because people are
likely to assume that the face is an honest window into anothers true feelings,
they may be particularly vulnerable to manipulation by someone who uses his or
her facial expression to create a false impression.
An important application of knowledge of facial expressions occurs in the
helping professions. One such application is ascertaining the existence and sever-
ity of mental disorders. For example, when distressed, toddlers with autism
show less expressivity in their face than do those children without the disorder
(Esposito, Venuti, & Bornstein, 2011). Ekman, Matsumoto, and Friesen (1997)
noted that more contempt and more unfelthappy expressions at the time of
hospital admission were related to less improvement at discharge, and that dif-
ferent diagnostic groups showed different facial emotion patterns: People with
major depression showed more sadness and disgust; people in a manic condition
showed more feltand unfelthappiness and less anger, disgust, and sadness;
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 289
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and people with schizophrenia showed fear and low levels of all the other coded
emotions.
In an even more precise and revealing investigation of depressive individuals
expressions, Reed, Sayette, and Cohn (2007) asked how such individuals would
handle a situation in which a positive stimulusin this case, a video clip of the
comedian Chris Rockcould not be avoided. Would they be unmoved by the stim-
ulus or would they respond with happy feelings and expressions, the same as indi-
viduals with no depressive tendencies? The answer was some of both. The video
affected all participants equally in terms of self-rated happiness and number of eli-
cited smiles. However, participants with current depression symptoms and a
depression history were five times more likely to try to control their smiles with
additional muscle movements than other participants (see Figure 9-16). It was as
though these individuals were fighting off the urge to smile.
The patients face may not be the only face that is important in a clinical situa-
tion, however. There is reason to believe that physiciansand therapistsfacial
expressions have an impact on patients. Ambady, Koo, Rosenthal, and Winograd
(2002) found that the facial expressions of physical therapists predicted changes in
elderly patientsphysical and psychological functioning over the course of treat-
ment. Specifically, facial distancingor not smiling and not looking at the patient
was associated with decreases in functioning, whereas facial expressivenessthat
is, smiling, nodding, and frowningwas associated with increases in functioning.
Research shows that adultssmiles and other expressions influence babies
moods and responses to the environment (Cappella, 1981). Extensive work has
been conducted on the interaction between mothers who have depression and
their infants (Field, 2002; Lundy, Field, & Pickens, 1996). For example, depressed
mothers seem less able to identify happy expressions in infants, suggesting that they
may be less responsive to such cues, including reciprocating them (Arteche et al.,
2011). Infants of depressed mothers have less expressive faces than other infants, do
not orient as well visually to adults, and show more facial negativity. In Fields
(2002) study, the depressed mothers displayed the same kinds of behaviors that
were then seen in their infants, such as more negative facial expressions and less
looking around, as well as less vocalization and less tactile stimulation.
FIGURE 9-16
Depressed persons response to a funny film: neutral, to smile, to smile control. Numbers refer to
which muscle action units were activated.
Source: From Reed, Sayette, and Cohn, 2007.
Dr. Lawrence Ian Reed
290 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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Savitsky, Izard, Kotsch, and Christy (1974) were interested in whether facial
expressions of emotion by a victim would have any effect on the aggressors behav-
ior. When individuals thought they were controlling the amount of electric shock
that another person, the victim, would get, they gave more shocks to victims who
responded with expressions of happiness and smiles and fewer to victims who dis-
played expressions of anger.
Facial expressions also influence perceptions of trustworthiness (Krumhuber
et al., 2007; Stouten & De Cremer, 2010). Krumhuber and colleagues (2007)
manipulated a video of several potential partners in a game in which people could
choose to cooperate or not, where cooperation implied trust and where mutual
cooperation would result in higher monetary rewards for both. The partnersfaces
showed an authentic-looking smile, an inauthentic-looking smile, or a neutral
expression. Participants chose the authentically smiling person to cooperate with,
rating that person the most trustworthy.
Although defendantsfaces are scrutinized closely in the courtroom, their faces
are not the only influential ones. In a cleverly designed experiment, Hart (1995)
obtained videotapes of judges reading standard instructions to juries in real trials,
and he also found out how those judges personally leaned in terms of guilt or inno-
cence. These videotapes were then spliced onto a different trial, and the whole
sequence was shown to groups of role-playing jurors. Thus, these jurors were
being instructed by judges who were known to be biased, although about a differ-
ent case. Jurorsverdicts of guilt and innocence were significantly influenced by the
judgesfacial expressions and tone of voice, thus demonstrating that judgesexpres-
sions can influence jurors even though the judges are supposed to remain impartial
in their behavior.
Childrens facial expressions and reactions to othersexpressions have implica-
tions for education and law. Berhenke, Miller, Brown, Seifer, and Dickstein (2011)
demonstrated that kindergartnersexpressions offered clues to their motivation,
and thus, potential readiness for success in school; for instance, shame expressions
(from facial, vocal, and behavioral cues) while working on challenging tasks were
linked to greater math and reading skills. With respect to the law, there has been
much interest and debate about whether children can give accurate eyewitness
reports, such as when they are interviewed about possible sexual abuse. In an inter-
view situation, it appears that the interviewers facial expressions, combined with
body movements, can influence a childs responses. In a study by Almerigogna,
Ost, Akehurst, and Fluck (2008), an adult quizzed a child about what the child
could remember from a learning exercise the previous week. When the interviewer
smiled and refrained from fidgeting, the children gave more accurate and honest
answers than when the adult fidgeted and did not smile. Furthermore, children in
the nonsmiling-fidgeting situation were more likely to falsely report being touched
by the teacher in that exercise when asked a leading question.
Interactions between service providers and customers provide yet another
forum in which facial expressions can have impact. In an experiment in which
role-playing customerswatched videos of hotel clerks interacting with someone
who was checking in, the clerk who displayed a smile that appeared authentic
received higher customer satisfaction ratings than the clerk whose smile appeared
inauthenticbut only when the clerk was performing his or her tasks competently.
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 291
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When the clerk made errors, the kind of smile had no impact (Grandey, Fisk,
Mattila, Jansen, & Sideman, 2005). Thus, the context was an important qualifier
of whether the smile mattered.
Facial expressions are related to gender stereotyping as well as discrimination
against women in the media and small groups. Leppard, Ogletree, and Wallen
(1993) noted that, in medical advertisements, men were more often shown with
serious/neutral facial expression, whereas women were more often shown with
pleasant expressions. Butler and Geis (1990) investigated male and female leaders
in groups. Each group had a male or female leader who had, unknown to the
group members, been trained to offer identical suggestions and arguments.
However, the group members, who were the subjects of study, displayed more
pleased responses (smiling and nodding) and fewer displeased responses (furrowed
brow, mouth tightening, head shaking) when listening to the male leader than
when listening to the female leader. Group members were apparently unaware of
their gender-biased behavior or denied it, for they later revealed no gender bias in
written evaluations of the leaders. The potential importance of this finding in real
groups is obvious: Subtle signals of devaluation sent by audience members could
undermine a female leaders performance and could even create negativity in audi-
ence members who were not initially biased against her.
Another connection between the face and sex discrimination was made by
Archers discovery of the face-ismor facial prominence phenomenon. Specifi-
cally, in magazine and newspaper pictures, proportionately more of the picture is
devoted to mens faces, whereas pictures of women show more of the body.
Archer, Iritani, Kimes, and Barrios (1983) found this pattern in publications from
11 different cultures and in artwork over 6 centuries, as well as in peoples amateur
drawings. Both Archer and later researchers (Zuckerman, 1986) have made the
case that face-ism is a form of devaluing women. Consistent with the view that
depicting less of the face devalues the person in the picture, Zuckerman and Kieffer
(1994) demonstrated that face-ism favoring whites over blacks also exists in maga-
zines and art. Lastly, Matthews (2007) found higher facial prominence in magazine
photographs of individuals who had intellectually oriented as opposed to physically
oriented occupations, especially if the person in the photograph was a man.
The smile is a profoundly influential social cue that has been studied in many
contexts. People reciprocate smiles quite predictably (Hinsz & Tomhave, 1991;
Jorgenson, 1978). You can imagine how, after returning someones smile, facial
feedback or attributional processes could produce real changes in your emotional
state or your attitude toward the smiler (e.g., I just smiled at Jim. I must really
like him!). Smiles are positive reinforcers that can change behavior just as other,
more traditional reinforcers can. For example, receiving a smile from one stranger
can make you more helpful toward a different stranger (Guéguen & de Gail,
2003; Solomon et al., 1981), and receiving a smile from your waitperson can lead
you to leave a larger tip (Tidd & Lockard, 1978).
Angry faces are a potent stimulus, too. In a series of experiments, Hansen and
Hansen (1988) compared peoples ability to pick out an angry face in a crowd of
happy faces to their ability to pick out a happy face in a crowd of angry faces. As
they predicted, picking out the angry face was faster and more error free than pick-
ing out the happy face. Seeing angry faces might also encourage us to feel guilty
292 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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(perhaps we have done something wrong) as well as the desire to stop doing some-
thing that the angry person disapproves of (Giner-Sorolla & Espinoza, 2011;
Wilkowski, 2012). All in all, perhaps our survival as a species has some relation
to our sensitivity to possible threat, whether physical or social, signaled by others
angry facial expressions.
The influence exerted on us by othersfacial expressions is not limited to those
faces that we consciously see and take note of. Nonconscious, subliminal percep-
tion effects have been uncovered as well. Murphy and Zajonc (1993) showed peo-
ple a happy or an angry face for only 4 milliseconds, an interval much too short to
allow for conscious perception of the faces, followed by unfamiliar stimuliin this
case, written Chinese characters. When the experimenters asked the participants
how much they liked each Chinese character, they found that characters preceded
by a happy face were liked more than those preceded by an angry face. More
recently, Dimberg, Thunberg, and Elmehed (2000) found that subliminally expos-
ing people to happy or angry facial expressions produced corresponding facial
movements according to EMG measurements. In this case, both the stimulus (the
faces seen) and the response (the small facial movements picked up by EMG
recording) occurred nonconsciously.
SUMMARY
The face is a multimessage system. It can com-
municate information regarding personality,
interest, and responsiveness during interaction,
emotional states, and how people want to pres-
ent themselves to others. Although we know
that people associate certain personality charac-
teristics with certain expressions and facial
features, we do not fully know how accurate
these impressions are. We know the face is used
as a conversational regulator that opens and
closes communication channels, complements
and qualifies other behaviors, and replaces spoken
messages.
Facial expressions are very complex entities
to deal with. Of all the areas of the body, the
face seems to elicit the best external and inter-
nal feedback, which makes it easy for us to
follow a variety of facial display rules. Not all
facial displays represent single emotions; some
are blends of several emotions. Sometimes we
show aspects of an emotional display when we
are not actually feeling emotional, as with
facial emblems that represent commentary on
emotions. At other times the emotion we are
feeling is not very predictably shown on our
face. The question of how often the face
spontaneously reveals emotional experiences in
daily life is hotly contested.
We noted some measurement issues involved
in the study of facial expressions: the complexity
of the decisions observers are asked to make, sim-
ulated as opposed to real expressions, the method
of presenting the face to the observerfilms,
photos, and the likeand knowledge of the con-
text. Naturally, all these factors may impinge on
our accuracy in identifying facial expressions of
emotion.
Accuracy in judging the face tends to be high,
at least when prototypic expressions are pre-
sented. Furthermore, certain basic emotions
have been found to be accurately judged in cul-
tures around the world: anger, fear, disgust, sad-
ness, happiness, surprise, and contempt. To
understand what the face actually does during
the expression of emotion, anatomically based
coding systems, such as the FACS, have been
developed. The FACS can identify which muscles
are involved in different kinds of expressions.
A psychophysiological approach has added
much to our understanding of facial behavior.
People with more expressive faces have less activ-
ity in their autonomic nervous systems than do
CHAPTER 9THE EFFECTS OF THE FACE ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION 293
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less expressive people; this is interesting partly
because of its health implications. Under certain
circumstances, facial movements can influence
the emotions felt by the expressor; thus, the
face may not only read out emotions but also
actually produce them. Studies of minute facial
movements show that people unconsciously
mimic the facial expressions of others, even
those expressions too quick to be consciously
perceived. And researchers are finding out
more about which activities of the brain and
nervous system are associated with different
emotions. We concluded with a sampling of
studies showing that facial expressions can
have a strong impact on the people in our social
environment.
Answer to Figure 95: b. (All the others have traces of disgust or sadness.)
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Facial expressions can show emotions, but
they also are used for conversation manage-
ment. Give examples of each, and state
which function you consider the most
important.
2. Consider mens and womens nonverbal
behavior. Does the concept of display rules
help you explain any differences between the
sexes?
3. As noted in the chapter, the distinction
between a feigned or posed facial display
and an authentic or spontaneous one may be
hard to make. Discuss the issue of intention-
ality in facial expressions. Is it important to be
able to make such a distinction? Do you think
you can make such a distinction yourself, and
if so, how do you think you do it?
4. The chapter gives examples of how the face
is a potent influence on others. Think of
some other examples of this, and discuss
whether the face is more or less influential
than other nonverbal channels in terms of
its social impact.
5. Can you think of any occasions when you
might have experienced intensification, or
even creation, of an emotion as a result of
facial feedback?
6. Some people are more aware of the expres-
sions that occur on their faces than other
people. Discuss this phenomenon. What
kind of people do you think are more self-
observant than others? What impact do you
think this kind of self-accuracy has?
7. To see a demonstration of the FACSGen 2.0
program for generating facial expressions on
humanlike faces, go to the following Web
address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
wHg3a9z0alg.
294 PART IV THE COMMUNICATORSBEHAVIOR
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